


Acing it Takes Time

by ChocolateLemon



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Asexual Character, Asexuality, Bad Flirting, Cute Banter, Developing Relationship, Different sexuality, Flirting, Fluff, Hugo - Freeform, Hugo and Varian are too cute together and I don't know how to tag shit!, Hugo and Varian figuring things out, Hugo being a massive flirt, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Inspired by Varian and the Seven Kingdoms - Kaitlyn Ritter & Anna Lencioni, Love Confessions, Love Story, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Varian - Freeform, asexual varian, love is stressful, mature in the sense that it talks about sexualities and relationships between adult people, oblivious Varian, post- seven trails
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:26:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 71,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23843719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolateLemon/pseuds/ChocolateLemon
Summary: Hugo likes Varian, a lot! But no matter how much he flirts with Varian, it simply doesn’t seem to affect the younger man. When confronting Varian about this, there seems to be something more at play when Varian hesitantly reciprocates Hugo’s feeling. Together they have to figure things out. Who said love and relationships are easy anyway? This story is set after the seven trails (so roughly two years after the start of the seven kingdoms au). Prepare for gayness, fluff, bits of adventure and some good ol’ angst/ hurt and comfort.
Relationships: Hugo & Varian (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms), Hugo/Varian (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms), varigo
Comments: 132
Kudos: 307





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A quick note before we start. I’ve started writing this fic at the beginning of April so there might be inconsistencies with the lore that has been revealed during this time. I have tried to change this as much as I can when I saw this happen, but I will no longer wait with posting this. So please be lenient with the lore, I’ve taken quite some liberal steps and I’m sure this is not going to fit with the lore that is being released in the coming days or weeks.  
> But for now, enjoy! <3

Hugo pressed in a bit closer to Varian than was strictly necessary. The tavern was very crowded so he’d guessed Varian wouldn’t take notice. Though if he were to be honest, even if the bar was deserted, he doubted Varian would find any meaning behind the unnecessary touch. He had been flirting for weeks now, he wasn’t sure if the boy was this oblivious or just straight up ignoring his advances.

Varian had only once seemed to have responded to Hugo’s advances, that was when they had finally finished the last trail and gained the last totem. In a rush of happiness he had hugged Hugo tightly only to release him the moment he realized what he was doing.

Nuru sat down at the other side of the table, two drinks in her hands. “An ale and a beer,” Nuru said, pushing the drinks to boys.

Yong sat down beside her with two more drinks, handing one to Nuru.

They’d searched out this tavern to celebrate, not only finishing their quest but also returning safe and sound back to Nuru’s kingdom. Nuru thought it would take them about five more days to reach the castle. In a way, it was also something more somber. Nuru had to return to her castle and reassume her position as a princess so maybe even more than a celebration, it was an opportunity to enjoy each other’s company while they traveled the last few days.

They talked over the loud music of the bard a few tables away while they slowly emptied their drinks. In the span of two years, they had grown together, becoming comfortable in each other’s presence. Chatting came easy and Hugo honestly never felt at home this much with such an odd group of people before. Varian was certainly the linchpin in this group, holding them together. Varian’s never wavering optimism seemed only ever dampened by Nuru, the level headed one of the group. The studies as a princess and sharp mind made her wise beyond her years. It had taken a while before Varian and Nuru found a good way to work together. And even longer before Nuru trusted Hugo. Now, Nuru and Varian were a shining beacon of teamwork and were the fastest in finding the way together, writing out maps in a matter of moments. Yong, on the other hand, was the young brother of the group, especially towards Varian. Hugo had never known the two separate from each other but he doubted it had taken long for Yong to build the immense trust he had towards Varian. It was clear in the way the two carried themselves around each other that Varian had taken an almost mother-like role towards Yong. He guided the young and gullible Yong towards a calmer version of himself, one who let things explode far less often than before. Hugo had an inkling this was because Varian might have shared more than one trait with Yong in his past. It made him wonder how Varian was before he left his home, how he had grown into the man he was now. It made him wonder how many times Varian had made things explode and for some reason it made him envy whoever had been there to witness Varian growing up.

But it looked like these roles would cease to exist once they would split up. Within the coming days they’d have to say goodbye to their first companion, Nuru. Hugo was sure they’d visit again soon but it was still jarring to finally split up after working together for so long.

“This round is on me,” Varian said, getting up from beside Hugo. “Another milk, Yong?”

Yong nodded, passing his empty glass.

“I’d like more tea, please,” Nuru said, polite as always when passing her empty cup.

“On it,” Varian smiled. “And you?” He turned to Hugo who downed the last bit of beer.

“I’ll help you carry it,” he answered easily, grabbing both his and Varian’s empty tankards. “Don’t want your tiny hands slipping and dropping our drinks, now do we?”

Varian rolled his eyes at the familiar tease. “Come on then,” he answered, not reacting to the tease beyond that, turning for the bar.

“As quick as the wind, princess,” Hugo called after him, slipping off the bench.

He followed Varian through the crowd. He was taller and definitely broader than Varian, making it harder to follow the boy slipping past people like he was air. Hugo would describe himself as nimble and fast on his feet yet he never were able to rival Varian’s talent to push himself through a crowd in these taverns.

He lost eyes on Varian for a moment before finding him at the bar, already talking to the tender. “I’d like a brandy,” he whispered in Varian’s ear with far too much air, causing the boy to jump.

“Hugo!” He swatted at the other, the itch in his ear still going. “Wait,” it clicked what Hugo just whispered in his ears. “You never drink anything stronger than beer.”

“Aaaah,” Hugo started, stretching his arms before letting one fall on top of Varian’s head. “Tonight is a special occasion, is it not?”

“I thought you hated the feeling of not having control?” Varian asked, pushing the arm off of him. “Are you sure?”

“Yup,” Hugo answered. His hand found Varian’s with ease, tangling their fingers together, causing Varian to look down for a moment before deciding to ignore it and flag over the bartender. Hugo would seek to hold Varian’s hand more often and just like this time he wouldn’t pay much attention to it, much to Hugo’s dismay.

“Also a brandy and a mead with my order please.” He leaned forward, trying to lift his voice over the chatter and music. Hugo couldn’t quite catch the bartender’s answer, but he could hear Varian answering the apparent question asked. “Eh, cherry please.”

The bartender seemed satisfied with the answer and disappeared to finish their order. Varian leaned back again, taking his right hand from Hugo’s loose hold to grab his coin pouch. Hugo simply watched as Varian squint his eyes to peer at the coins in his pouch through the low lighting and shadows the bodies cast around him.  
  
Hugo didn’t like it when Varian took this long with his money. He knew very well that every moment he had it out in the open was a moment someone could snatch it from his hands. Varian always seemed just a slight bit too trusting of the rest of the world. He hated it in these moments but adored it in most others. Maybe it was the thieving he had done for so long that told him Varian’s actions spoke of weakness and invited him to be a victim but whatever it was, he just wanted to protect Varian from that kind of grief. To his relief, Varian had found the coins he was looking for and put his money away again. His blue eyes looked up, meeting the green ones staring at him. Varian seemed to see something in the stare that had not been there as his eyes spoke of a question.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Varian said, clearly thinking Hugo had said something.

Thinking quick on his feet, feeling the odd need to run with Varian’s thinking that he wasn’t just staring at him but had asked him something. He asked the first thing he could think of. “What was that cherry thing you ordered?”

“Oh,” Varian seemed a bit surprised. “The normal mead is already out. So he asked me if I would like a flavored one. I chose cherry mead.”

Hugo pulled his cut eyebrow up at the answer. “Didn’t know you liked cherry.”

“Well I do.” Varian smiled at Hugo.

“But you gave me all the cherries when we were stuck in that town,” Hugo recalled, thinking back how Varian had seemed to settle for the far less sweet elderberries. He figured the boy didn’t take to the sweetness of cherries. At this Varian seemed to get flustered, this was rather rare for Varian. “Oh-” He looked away from Hugo, his hand finding his neck, rubbing at it. “I knew cherries are your favorite so I gave them to you.”

Hugo’s heart skipped a beat. “What?”

He knew he had told Varian that his favorite fruit was cherries, but he didn’t think Varian would have made the effort to remember. They’d been brewing new potions, experimenting with new ingredients and filling up the room with different kinds of fumes. To make sure nothing too toxic would knock either of them out, they’d fired off random, seemingly unimportant questions at each other, leaving them free to watch their concoctions. Hugo had been very concentrated on his potion, barely paying attention to the questions or the answers, but apparently Varian had found it important enough in that moment to remember Hugo’s answers.

“Here you go.” The bartender placed the four drinks beside Varian.

“Oh-” Varian turned to the man. “Yes, thank you.” He handed the coins over, handing Hugo the brandy and the glass of milk. He took his mead and tea for Nuru with him. Without another word, Varian started to worm his way back to the table.

Hugo ignored the tug at his heart for now and followed the small scientist. They both sat down again and handed the new drinks to their friends.

“Mead, huh,” Nuru said, eyeing the red drink, too light to be wine. “Cherry?”

“Yup,” Varian sat down and took a long sip. “They ran out of natural,” he added.

“I haven’t seen you drink mead before.” Yong said, licking his milk mustache away.

“Well, this might be the last time we’re together like this before…” Varian looked away, sadness tugging at his smile. “I mean, we did finish all seven trails! We deserve it, don’t you think?”

Nuru’s smile had turned to something more comforting, as she reached out for Varian’s hand. “We certainly do.”

“Yeah!” Yong bellowed, downing his glass in one go.

Hugo laughed at the youngest of their group. “You always drink milk, nothing new there.”

The group lapsed back into comfortable chatting before Nuru and Varian went for another round. The evening flew by and before they knew it they had to leave. The night was advancing fast and they still needed to find a place to camp.

Varian hadn’t been too surprised to see Prometheus without Ruddiger when they left the tavern. The Raccoon didn’t like the noise the taverns brought with them and often went off to find snacks in the forests. So he simply untied his donkey and lead him with the group.

By the time they found a suitable place, Yong was ready to pass out. They might have stayed out a little too late for the poor kid. He was still young after all. Nuru was hiding it well, but Varian could see it in her dragging her feet that she too was spent.

Yong simply dropped his belongings and himself into the grass, face first. “Can’t we just sleep under the open sky tonight?” he asked, voice muffled by the grass and dirt.

“It might rain tonight,” Hugo looked at the sky, seeing the dark spots where the stars were hidden by clouds. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Here,” Varian picked up Yong’s bag. “I’ll help you.”

The help had slowly turned into Varian doing all the work as Yong stood swaying on his feet, nearly nodding off to sleep where he stood. Hugo was finished with his tent and helped Nuru with the last pegs of her tent. She thanked him for his help and the rest for the fun night.

“It was really great,” she smiled, crouching down to get into her tent. “Have a good rest.”

“Good night,” Varian answered from behind Yong’s tent, also working on the last pegs.

“G’night,” Hugo said, rolling out his sleeping mat.

Yong mumbled something but they weren’t sure if the boy himself knew what he was trying to say. Varian laughed quietly at the boy before his eyes met Hugo’s. Hugo smiled before winking.

Varian did what he always did when Hugo would flirt with him, react like it meant nothing to him and continue doing whatever he was doing before. While Varian moved to the other side of the tent to fasten the other pegs, Hugo huffed in disappointment. What else had he expected Varian to do? Varian had never really reacted to his flirting. Varian had certainly drank more that night than he’d ever seen the boy do, and there was a certain flush to his freckled cheeks. He didn’t think Varian was drunk necessary, but at least a bit tipsy. Apparently being tipsy didn’t make him any more susceptible to his flirting.

He watched Varian help Yong get his mat ready as well and put the boy to bed. “Good night,” he heard his voice low and warm through the tent. Varian appeared from Yong’s tent and eyed his own unmade tent and sighed.

Hugo watched as he rubbed at his face while walking over to his own stuff. “Why don’t you sleep in my tent tonight?” Hugo offered. “Mine is big enough to hold two.”

Varian looked up from his bag. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Not if it’s you,” Hugo smirked at Varian.

Varian seemed relieved at those words instead of flustered, which is what Hugo had aimed for. “Thanks Hugo. You’re a lifesaver.” He picked up his bag and moved it from the open space where he had planned to make his tent to Hugo’s. He took out his mat and rolled it out as well.

Feeling just a bit too brave after tonight, Hugo spoke up. “Are you really this thick or just ignoring my flirting?”

“What?” Varian looked up, eyes speaking of his confusion.

Hugo laughed quietly and rubbed his face. He was really oblivious then. Oh lord why did he have to fall in love with someone this thick?

“Wait,” Varian slowly turned red. “Are you pulling my leg?”

Thinking he could blame the brandy later on, Hugo pulled Varian into the tent. Making sure not to stop pulling until their lips were nearly touching. He could smell the cherry mead Varian had been drinking that night. Had Varian been drinking it on purpose to seduce him?

“H-Hugo,” Varian’s whispered voice sounded unsure as his eyes bore into Hugo’s. The flush from before still lingered and it stirred up a longing inside Hugo.

“I want to kiss you, Varian,” he said but did not make a move, feeling himself sink into the blues of his eyes. He was not going to make the final move, no matter how much he wanted too. He had made enough moves as it was and it was time for Varian to answer.

There was a moment of silence, one that seemed to linger far longer than Hugo had anticipated. There was a moment he thought Varian would pull away, but he didn’t. Instead, Varian shifted, moving into a more balanced position. He watched, almost as if time was slowed down, how Varian closed his eyes and moved in. Their lips met, slightly awkward in its novelty, a little sloppy but definitely a kiss. It almost felt unreal to finally have Varian’s lips against his, making him wonder if he hadn’t just dozed off and this being a dream. It felt simply right to have Varian this close, to feel his lips on top of his own. But it was as if time regained its speed because the kiss was over far too fast. Varian had been the one to break it but Hugo couldn’t find it in himself to complain about the duration when he saw Varian’s face.

Varian’s face had flushed even deeper than before, eyes seemingly lost in Hugo’s green ones. Suddenly, as if someone popped a balloon, the dream seemed to stop as Varian shook his head vigorously. “This is ridiculous,” he said, picking up his mat again and pulling it into Hugo’s tent. “We both had too much to drink.”

Hugo watched as Varian worked in the small room to get his mat down properly. When he managed to do so, he turned to the open part of the tent, pulling in his big bag and placing it on the unoccupied side of the tent. He sat down on his mat, back turned to Hugo as he rummaged through his belongings. He pulled out one of his water skins and downed it in one go.

“You’ll need to pee tonight if you drink this much,” Hugo said teasingly.

“And wake up with a hangover? No thank you.”

Hugo watched him as he started taking off layers, preparing for the night. “You know, I’ve been flirting with you for a while now,” Hugo said, as he laid down on his mat. He had already removed his outer layers and pulled a thick blanket up, covering himself. Tonight was a cold night.

“I haven’t noticed,” Varian said, folding his trousers and putting them on top of his small stack of clothes.

“Really?” Hugo asked.

“Yeah,” Varian pulled a blanket from his bag and spread it out over his mat. “I’m not good with love.”

Hugo turned to his shoulder so he was facing Varian’s back and hummed. “Oh, how come?”

Varian was quiet for a moment as he pulled out a small pillow and placed it down, eyes finally meeting Hugo. “I-” he fell quiet again. “I don’t know.”

Hugo frowned in disbelief. “Really? You, the boy with-”

“Man,” Varian interjected. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

Hugo huffed a quiet laugh. “You, the _man,_ with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and an undying love for figuring out mysteries hasn’t tried to solve the mysteries of his own heart? I don’t buy it.”

Hugo could see something tighten in Varian’s face before he turned his back to him once again. He rummaged through his bag but Hugo was certain he did this just to be able to turn away.

“Didn’t you used to have a crush on that Cassandra girl we met after getting the fourth totem?”

Varian’s head snapped around. “How’d you-?”

Hugo laughed. “It was quite obvious,” he said. “There was clearly something more than just friendship between you and her. And didn’t you say you created an element and named it after her? That sounds like a very love-struck Varian to me.”

“That was before…” Varian’s voice died out and he promptly turned back to his bag. “Whatever.”

“Varian?” Hugo reached out to touch Varian who spoke before he could.

“Drop it, okay?” he didn’t sound angry or irritated, just exhausted. “I’m tired.”

Hugo took his hand back feeling like he was misunderstanding something. Did he miss something? “S-sure. I didn’t mean to push it.”

Varian sighed softly before he seemingly finished doing whatever he had been to keep himself busy within his bag. He looked around to see Hugo still staring his way and gave a small smile of gratitude. Hugo answered with one of his sincere smiles and watched Varian lay down.

Varian settled himself under his blankets before turning to his side, facing Hugo. Hugo was happy to see that the heavy exhaustion that had been looming over Varian had lifted a bit. “Thanks,” Varian said.

He scooted a bit closer, decreasing the gap between the two of them before he let out a small giggle. Hugo couldn’t do anything but stare as Varian turned a bit giddy. “I drank way too much,” he said in an almost sing-song voice.

Hugo couldn’t help but question how Varian could look so approachable after closing up so completely only moments ago. He didn’t think he could find any satisfactory answers tonight so pushed it aside in favor of enjoying the moment that was happening between them.

“Same here,” Hugo smiled, noticing the smell of cherry mead had watered down a bit. He reached out to brush the black and blue hair strands from Varian’s face. Varian let him and Hugo’s eyes found Varian’s lips. He really wanted more, could he ask for more?

Regaining his boldness from earlier he spoke up. “One more for the night?”

Varian seemed to need a moment before he caught on to what Hugo meant and smiled in a way Hugo couldn’t quite place. “Okay,” he said and Hugo’s heart skipped a beat. “But it is the last one.”

Hugo hadn’t taken much notice of Varian’s words after his okay and moved in. He didn’t need to be told twice, he was allowed to kiss this adorable little alchemist.

He wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the rush of hearing Varian say it was okay to kiss him but he felt a bravery to press in deep. He tried his best not to make too many loud noises as he explored the taste that was Varian. He tasted mostly like cherry mead but there was something else there, something wholly unique. Something he could undoubtedly describe as Varian, simply Varian.

Varian was letting Hugo take the lead but was certainly following along, if a bit more timidly. Hugo couldn’t help but wonder for a moment if Varian had ever kissed someone. Had he kissed Casandra? He pushed those thoughts away to enjoy his moment with Varian.

But even this moment had to end. He felt like he shouldn’t press his luck too far and slowly pulled back, wincing slightly at the loud and wet noise they created in parting. It had almost sounded forbiddingly loud against their soft gasps and he just hoped Nuru and Yong wouldn’t have heard them.

Hugo’s mind swayed back to Varian in an instant as he saw the look the boy was giving him. He could see something akin to longing in his eyes and something else, it made him doubt Varian’s last words. He’ll figure out later why he had even suggested this being their last. Varian clearly felt something for him.

He sighed in contentment and decided to try and solve the enigma that was called Varian’s feelings another moment. “Good night.”

“Good night, Hugo,” Varian answered in a whispering voice.

He watched Varian turn to his other side and decided to at least give sleeping a shot. Though he wondered if he could, with how fast his heart was hammering against his chest. To his relief, he didn’t have to wait long for the familiar tug of sleep. Maybe he had drank exactly enough this night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it so far!  
> This work is being beta read by another writer that makes awesome Tangled works as well! Check her out on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cayenne_Pepper or her Tumblr: https://cayenneavocado.tumblr.com/ to keep yourself entertained while waiting for a update! ;)  
> Btw, I’d love to hear back from you guys! So don’t be shy and go ham(sandwiches) in the comments! <3


	2. Chapter 2

Hugo moaned as the heat and light of the sun hit his tent, waking him up. He rubbed at his forehead as a prominent headache pulsed and dragged his hands down over his face, his palms pushing on his eyes before continuing to the rest of his face. Hugo moved to his side, eyes slowly opening. He startled a bit as he saw a person next to him only to realize who it was a moment after. Right, he had invited Varian into his tent yesterday. They kissed and talked… and kissed once more.

It was oddly serene to see Varian’s resting form beside him. His eyes were closed, deep, slow breaths moved his chest up and down. He looked peaceful, even after everything that happened.

Soft chatter penetrated the silence in his tent, breaking the illusion of them being alone. Yong and Nuru were clearly already awake and about. He sighed, wishing it was still night and they could whisper under the cover of the starry sky, having alcohol as an excuse for doing things. But alas that moment has passed.

Varian moaned as well, kicking the blankets away, turning his back to Hugo. His back was slightly sweaty because the tent had heated up quite a bit under the strong morning sun. Hugo couldn’t help himself but stare at Varian’s back, it was splayed with freckles, even more so than his face had. Hugo sat up, pulling his eyes away from Varian’s sleeping figure. He had to stop gawking at him. He wasn’t even sure how Varian was feeling about all this. He had complied with kissing yesterday and he had seemed in love but there was that thing he didn’t seem to want to talk about.

Bad at love? What was that even supposed to mean? It didn’t seem like Varian really meant it like that. But whatever he did mean was a total enigma to him.

Hugo pressed his palms against his eyes again and pushed his hair back. He took out one of the many pieces of thin robe he had and used it to tie his hair back sloppy. He put on his glasses and grabbed his trousers, pushing one leg through.

“Hugo?” The groggy voice of Varian sounded next to him. He turned to face Hugo. “Morning,” he said, sounding still half asleep and seeing his eyes were still closed Hugo was pretty sure it was true.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Hugo smiled, pushing his other leg through the trousers. “Feeling good?”

Varian hummed and nodded against the pillow, eyes still closed. Hugo felt his heart pick up its pace before he looked back at his trousers and wriggled further into them. His tent was small to begin with but with Varian occupying the other half he had to do with dressing himself in his bed.

As he closed the buttons on his trouser he turned to Varian. “Come on, wake up.”

Varian moaned again but opened his eyes slightly. “Ugh, the water didn’t help,” he complained before he pushed his face back into the pillow.

Hugo couldn’t help the laugh. “The rest are already up and probably getting breakfast ready.”

Varian seemed to practically drag himself into a sitting position, movement sluggish. He rubbed at his face before turning to his clothes. He pulled his undershirt over his head, yawning while doing it. He wiggled himself into his trousers as well and turned to Hugo.

Hugo took that as his cue to open the tent and get out. He watched as Varian also got out.

“Morning!” Yong sounded happy as he was working on lighting a fire under freshly found wood, mostly trying to not burn everything around them too.

“Morning.” Varian gave a quick wave before walking at a fast pace to the shrubbery.

“Good morning.” Hugo sat down a little ways back from Yong, pretty used to the blasts of fire coming from the boy when trying to light things. He took out his waterskin, taking a sip. “Had a good night’s rest?”

“Yeah!” he answered cheerfully. “I don’t even remember putting up my tent. I was way gone.”

Nuru laughed as she crouched out of her tent, a basket in her hands. “You didn’t put up your tent, Yong.”

“What?” Yong looked lost as he looked back at the princess. “Then who did?”

“Varian,” Hugo answered. “You were pretty much asleep on your feet. He even made your bed and everything.”

“Is that why you were sleeping together?” Yong asked innocently.

Hugo spit his water out at that, coughing loudly.

“Why you were sharing your tent,” Nuru corrected, knowing the innuendo Yong was completely missing.

“Yeah.” Hugo hated how he sounded hoarse, rubbing his mouth dry. “Varian was pretty spent too, I didn’t see the reason for him to set up his tent if he could just sleep in mine. We were not planning to stay here longer than today anyway.”

“True,” Nuru said, grabbing one of the big pans. “We all made it a bit late yesterday,” she continued as she grabbed a wooden spoon and a small knife. She sat down and started peeling the apples she’d bought. “You had quite a bit to drink too,” she noted, not in an accusing tone. Nuru cut the apple into smaller bits and let it drop into the pan. “I was honestly surprised you two didn’t need help getting back.”

“We weren’t that drunk,” Varian said, stepping into the open space surrounded by three tents.

Yong shook his head, moving back as the logs caught fire. “I don’t understand why you guys drink at all.”

Nuru shrugged at this as well as she started peeling the second apple.

“It’s nice,” Varian explained, grabbing a small knife as well and sat down between Nuru and Yong, taking one of the apples. “It tastes really good and it just makes some things easier.”

“Easier?” Yong pulled his eyebrow up in question. “What was so hard about yesterday?”

Varian smiled and nudged Yong with his shoulder. “Let's say it’s an adult thing.”

“What?!” Yong complained. “You’re not that much older than me!”

Varian laughed. “I’m six years older than you. I call that quite a lot.”

Yong pouted. “I still don’t get it though.”

Varian pulled Yong into a sideways embrace. “Let’s just keep it on that drinking is fun. It makes you a bit more loose and nice and warm. It feels good. You get what I mean?”

Yong nodded and hugged Varian. “I want to be old like you.”

“You’ll get there,” Varian smiled fondly. “No need hurry.”

Hugo simply watched how Varian moved so naturally in his big brother role with Yong. The two laughed while Varian’s ever-moving hands were working on peeling and cutting apples. Hugo had never really been a team player and even now he felt like the odd one out in moments like these. Varian seemed so connected with everyone around him, so at ease. It was one of the things that he found very attractive about him. Varian had some kind of ease to him, even when he was still not on their side, Varian simply connected with him so easily. Even in his insecurities, that Hugo had been sure to pull up, he had stayed kind, helpful, compassionate. Back then Hugo had pulled some nasty things on Varian but he never sent that ugliness back. He always responded with a kind heart. Even when he was clearly irritated.

Hugo watched Varian put the pan on the fire, stirring the apple pieces. “H-have you guys seen Ruddiger around camp at all?”

That pulled Hugo out of his thoughts. He had been staring at Varian again, hadn’t he? He knew Varian was probably worried about Ruddiger but Hugo couldn’t help but be glad that the animal had left the two alone for the night.

“No.” Nuru looked around her. “He’s not in Hugo’s tent? He didn’t sleep with you?”

“No. He doesn’t always, but I haven’t seen him since we went to the tavern. I’m a bit worried .” Varian said.

“He’ll come back like always,” Hugo said. “He has pulled a disappearing act on us before.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Varian gave another stir at the apples, making sure they were cooking and not burning. “I just hope he won’t make us wait too long.”

“Hugo, can you grab the oats from my bag?” Nuru asked.

“Sure.” He got up and moved to the bag containing different foods that are shelf-stable. They carried quite a few of these kinds of food items. The fresher ones they bought whenever they were near a town, like today. He found the oats rather quickly and handed it to Nuru.

“Thank you.” She took the cow skin bag.

“I’ll get us some more water to distill,” Yong said, getting the big bucket and leaving for the river that was only a few yards away. It was perfect for bathing and cleaning their clothes.

Hugo took Yong’s place and sat down, making sure his shoulder touched Varian’s. Varian looked at him, his expression conveying confusion but also something new. Varian looked back at the apples, seeing how they slowly turned to mush. It was more reaction than he got up till now. It was a victory in Hugo’s book.

“I think the apples are ready,” Varian said.

“Okay.” Nuru added the milk she had bought and Varian stirred it carefully. She added some oats as well, eying the amount she dropped in. She was particularly good at guessing how much they needed for that nice consistency. They rarely needed to add more milk or oats. After stirring well and thorough, they let the mixture rest while it was slowly simmering.

“I’ll grab our equipment for distilling,” Varian said. The tools they used were originally his, something he’d brought with him on his travels. It was a system by his own design. He got it made by the best glassblower in Corona. It had taken him a few tries to make it perfect. He could screw the parts on to each other, the glass closing nicely around each other. It was quite a hassle to get it working correctly and the glassblower had made multiple versions.

Rapunzel had been very interested in the design so she chipped in, she paid pretty much for all the failed attempts, in exchange for being allowed to keep the design and make more once it worked. Varian would’ve allowed her regardless, but it did help him out a lot. The money he saved like this had been a big help on his travels through the seven kingdoms.

Varian took out the parts, all wrapped carefully to protect them from damage. It had saved them a lot of money on water. Besides, it had been fun to gloat to Hugo for having outdone him on this design. He assembled the parts and carried it out, placing it close to the fire, letting the glass get used to the heat slowly. The glass was thicker than he originally wanted, but its durability would have been compromised if he had made it thinner than it was now. They had to be careful not to heat it too quickly at once but that was no problem. They usually got it out while making food and used the remaining heat from the fire to distill water, so that gave them ample time to let the glass get used to the heat.

Hugo got up to help him, even though he knew it wasn’t necessary. Any excuse to be close to Varian was a good one. Varian eyed him for a second but continued to set up his distilling set. Hugo helped to change the legs of the holder, so it would stand upright and not lean over.

“Thanks,” Varian murmured.

“Anything for you.” Hugo couldn’t help but whisper in his ear.

For the first time Hugo witnessed Varian get flustered over his words. It was a wonderful sight to see. He whipped around, face red and embarrassment clear on his features, ready to tell him off. But his words died on his tongue as Yong came prancing back, a bucket sloshing with water.

“Got the water!” The boy called joyfully. “You’ve got the distiller ready?”

Varian closed his mouth with a loud click and he rubbed his face, almost like he was trying to scrub the red off, before he had to face Yong. “I do,” he called back, unscrewing the top. His cheeks were still clearly tinted red as he helped the boy pour the water carefully into the glass. Something had clearly changed after last night. It seemed like Varian was finally picking up what he was putting down.

Yong had been in awe and very confused the first time they had used Varian’s distiller, but now he had become handy with the system. He knew how to pour the water in and where things went. Still, it was mainly Varian who operated the distiller, but usually, Yong helped him out.

“Can I do the water this time?” Yong asked.

“Sure,” Varian answered. “But I will help you. It’s still a delicate process.”

“But first,” Nuru spoke up from the bubbling pan. “Breakfast.”

Hugo watched Varian light up at those words. “Great!” The boy quickly grabbed the bowls. “I’m starving!”

Hugo noticed Nuru’s eyes following Varian for a bit without moving her head, before he disappeared from her vision. She seemed deep in thought as she gave the porridge a good stir.

Varian gave everyone a bowl and held onto both his and Nuru’s bowls. Nuru started pouring the porridge into the bowls one by one, the scent of cooked apples and porridge filling the air around them.

“It smells good, Nuru,” Yong sang as he sat down in the grass.

“I even found some spices,” Nuru said as she filled the last bowl. “It wasn’t cheap,” she said, grabbing a small vile from the basket she had brought from the market this morning. “But I brought enough for today’s porridge.”

“Cinnamon?!” Varian exclaimed in pure delight. “Nuru, you’re the best!”

“And,” she added in a sing-song voice. “I even found some honey.”

“Nuru, that’s far too expensive,” Hugo pressed. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Well,” she started, “I will return home soon, and I had some money left from our last sales. So I figured I’d treat your guys to a good breakfast.”

Varian beamed a big smile towards her. “You’re too kind Nuru!”

Nuru proceeded to carefully share the little spice and honey she had brought between the four bowls and the four of them sat down with expectant faces. They all stirred their porridge and Yong was the first to take a bite.

“So gooood,” Yong said, through a mouth full of porridge. Varian would usually say something about Yong talking with his mouth full but he simply smiled and let it slide. Hugo figured Varian was also still in a celebratory mood.

It wasn’t long before the porridge was gone and done for. “Why don’t we clean up and you two get ready?” Hugo said, slinging his arm around Varian.

Nuru tilted her head ever so slightly before answering, “Sure, I’ll go bathe so you guys can go after.”

Varian looked up at Hugo, eyes big and searching. “Sounds like a plan,” Hugo said.

Nuru turned to her tent and climbed in to grab the things she needed.

Yong was already bouncing beside the water distiller. “I’ll get that going.” Varian jabbed his thumb towards Yong and the distiller behind him.

Hugo watched Varian step away from him and help Yong to open the upper part of the small tube wrapped around the pipe, connecting the two main parts. They carefully moved the set over the fire and watched as the water quickly started to boil. As vapor started to fog the glass, Varian told the boy to pour the water carefully into the funnel, telling him that he shouldn’t spill it.

Hugo left the tents to get some more water for the dishes and met Nuru as he wanted to turn back. She looked at him, her brown eyes searching. Hugo didn’t know what to say for a moment and that was something that did not happen often. He was always quick-witted, but for some reason, he drew a blank. The fact she didn’t say a word just made his head spin like he was caught doing something he shouldn’t.

Nuru seemed to find her wording before he did and spoke up, “What happened between you two last night?”

Hugo almost dropped his bucket of water. “What?”

She tilted her head, seemingly interested in his reaction before she gave an honest smile. “Something changed between you and Varian,” Nuru provided, “Well maybe, it’s more that something has changed with Varian. You’ve been flirtatious with him for a long time now, but he has never really reacted on this before,” she hummed at the mystery. “I thought I heard you two talk last night but I couldn’t quite hear what you guys said. I was so tired I fell asleep pretty much right away.”

“I well,” Hugo struggled for words. She clearly hadn’t heard them kissing, that was for sure. But he wasn’t about to tell her that. He wasn’t even sure Varian could quite remember doing so. “I kind of confronted him about the flirting.”

“Oh.” Nuru sounded genuinely surprised.

“He hadn’t really realized I flirted with him before,” Hugo explained. He didn’t feel like going into detail. Yesterday he had laughed at Varian’s density towards flirting, now it felt like it was something more private between them. It had become heavier with a secret he didn’t yet know. “So that’s probably it.”

“Well, whatever is going on between the two of you,” she said and patted him on the back. “I hope you take good care of Varian. I’ll be taking my bath now.”

Hugo watched with big eyes as Nuru left for the shrubbery to get undressed. “I- ehh- enjoy your bath?” he said and left for the camp.

As he returned he saw Yong contentedly pouring water carefully in the funnel still. Varian on the other hand was simply watching him. The side with clean water had already filled quite a bit. Hugo sat down with the dishes and started cleaning them. It didn’t take long for Yong to grow bored with the distiller and Varian took over his job to pour the water into to the funnel.

“I’m going to see if there are some berry bushes and nuts to find around here,” Yong said cheerfully, grabbing an empty basket.

“Don’t take too long,” Varian said. “You need to bathe too.”

“Sure!” The boy disappeared into the tree line on the northern side of their camp.

Varian sighed softly as he continued to concentrate on the water. Hugo finished the dishes quickly and put away the things they had used. He sat down beside Varian, once again making sure he was pressing into his side before saying. “Soooo…”

“What is it with you and touching me?” Varian asked, not sounding angry but honestly confused. “This can’t be comfortable for you.”

“Better question,” Hugo replied. “Why have you never stopped me?”

Varian stops pouring to watch Hugo for a moment. “I figured you liked it or something.”

Hugo huffed as Varian aimed his attention on the distiller once again.

“I’m trying to get your attention, Varian,” Hugo answered sincerely, not sure why he’s doing so.

Varian stiffened and stopped pouring again. He didn’t react any further though.

“I’m flirting with you, Varian. I want your undivided attention,” Hugo continued. “I want to- God I want to make out with you! Is that so hard to get?” The last words had left him before he realized it. He hadn’t meant it like that. He was not angry with Varian. He just got frustrated with himself and his feelings.

“Sorry, I can’t read into things like that, Hugo!” Varian snapped back.

Hugo was sure Varian meant it as a snide but he just sounded insecure. Varian sighed and rubbed at his face. “I thought you were just teasing me up until yesterday night.”

“What? Really? You thought I was just teasing you all this time?”

“Didn’t it start like that, then?”

Hugo fell silent for a moment. Yeah, it had started as genuine teasing, back when he didn’t like Varian, even in the time he did consider him a friend. It had always been teasing until a month or two ago.

“Ah, well, yes…”

“How was I supposed to know it had changed?” Varian asked. “It didn’t quite change after you actually became my friend instead of a spy for Donella. I didn’t notice much of a change since that time. I guess you got more touchy, that’s about it.”

“Huh.” Hugo sat back, taking Varian in as he considered. “I guess you have a point there.”

There was a silence once again and Hugo ached to break it. “Sooo…”

“So what?”

Hugo grabbed Varian’s free hand and tangled his fingers between Varian’s. “Where does this leave _us_?”

“I- eeh-” Varian blushed before something hardened in his expression. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Didn’t I ask you to drop it?”

“You did. You said you were tired so I dropped it. But now, I want to know what is going on. We kissed after all. Didn’t that mean anything?”

“It did!” Varian pressed. “It does… I just… Y-you don’t want me.” Varian turned back to his distiller, hurt clear in his face.

“What? Why?” He pulled Varian back. “Didn’t I make it clear that I like you?”

“You did. Very much so,” Varian seemed to get more and more flushed. His eyes became watery. “It’s not you. It’s me.”

“No, cut out that bull,” Hugo pressed. “I want to date you, Varian. It’s not like I asked you to marry me. We can try this. There is nothing wrong with you.”

“But there is!” Varian seemed even more startled by his own outburst than Hugo was. He covered his mouth before he covered his entire face. A shaky sigh escaped his lips.

“V-Varian..” Hugo didn’t quite know what to do in the moment, his hands hovering before Varian. He wanted to comfort the clearly distressed boy but he was afraid touching him would be too much right now. But when he heard a sob he threw caution to the wind. “Varian!” He pulled Varian’s hands away from his face. He met with the heartbreaking sight of Varian’s face, tear-stained and a trembling lip trying to hold in sobs. He pulled him into a hug. “Varian, what’s wrong?”

Tears spilled over Varian’s cheeks as he pressed his face into the crook of Hugo’s neck. His hands trembled as he grabbed onto the loose-fitting under shirt Hugo was wearing. Hugo simply rubbed soothing circles on Varian’s back. They stayed like that for a bit, Varian biting back tears while Hugo whispered sweet nothings in his ears.

Eventually Varian pulled back, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand. “Sorry, that was…” he laughed nervously. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be Varian. Whatever this is that your wrestling with, we can face it together.”

Hugo saw the same look on Varian’s face as he had seen yesterday, right after their last kiss. He wanted more. He wanted to lean in but heard Yong humming from a distance.

The both of them shot away from each other and Varian rubbed at his face vigorously. He turned back to his distiller and started pouring water down it again.

“Look what I found!” Yong sang happily swaying the basket on his arm. “Blackberries!”

Hugo smiled at the boy and stopped him from coming too close to Varian, taking the basket. “You got a lot too!” He looked into the basket .

Nuru entered camp as well, hair tied up in a scarf. “The water is great you guys.”

“I’m not quite done yet,” Varian said, not looking away from his distiller. “You guys go ahead and bathe without me.”

“You sure?” Hugo asked but Varian gave a quick nod. “Okay then. Grab your stuff, Yong.”

The two made their way to the water and started undressing. Hugo was barely wearing anything as it was so he was quick to slip into the water, bringing a bar of soap with him. The water stream was slow and the temperature comfortable. He started washing himself as Yong joined him in the water. Hugo lathered up his arms before handing the soap to Yong.

“Hugo-” Yong sounded uncertain. “What happened to Varian?”

Hugo rubbed at his arms to clean them. “Was it that obvious?”

“His eyes were still red,” Yong said. “I’m maybe a bit naive but I’m not blind.”

“A bit?” Hugo asked teasingly.

“Hugo!”

Hugo laughed. “Alright, alright.” Hugo threw water up to rinse off the soap and shook his head, his wet hair flying about. “I was talking to Varian but I’m not sure why he was so sad. I tried to get him to tell me but he wouldn’t open up. That’s pretty much when you came back,” he shrugged. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“Oh,” Yong sounded small. “I hope it’s nothing too bad.”

“Same here, kiddo.”

Nuru sat down beside Varian, watching him carefully pour water into the distiller’s top.

“Hey,” she said in an almost shy voice. “You… doing okay?”

“I’m fine.” Varian kept his eyes on the water, his voice kept meticulously even.

Nuru sighed, placing her hand on Varian’s arm. “Your eyes are still red from crying. I think even Yong noticed. Did Hugo say something stupid?”

“It isn’t really anything he said.” Varian’s voice wavered a bit but he kept his eyes on his pouring.

“But it is something you two talked about.” She paused, waiting for a reaction. “Or something you didn’t talk about?”

“He wouldn’t understand.” Varian’s shoulders were moving up, the tightness becoming clear in his face.

“How can you be so certain?” Varian didn’t answer. “I don’t know what this is, I wouldn’t dare to ask you. But if it hurt you so much, wouldn’t it be good to open up about it? Share it ?” Nuru let her hand slip down. “With maybe just one person you really trust?”

“Nuru, this is complicated,” Varian said, eyes still on his distiller. “This isn’t like science where I can discern an answer through trial and error. It isn’t a constant or something that follows the law of nature.”

“And thus you can’t speak of it?”

Varian’s eyes narrowed. “Thus I don’t know _how_ to speak about it.”

“Varian, no matter how alone you might feel in this, facing it alone won’t make that feeling better. Maybe having Hugo help you will make it easier for you to understand… whatever _this_ is.”

Varian finally stopped pouring and made proper eye contact. “How come you’re so wise for an 18-year-old?”

“Comes with the crown I guess,” she said jokingly back, pointing at her tied up hair.

“I think- I think I need time though,” he answered more seriously this time. “To at least gather my thoughts.”

“That is fair,” Nuru said simply. “Just don’t let the waiting for you to be ready change into waiting for something that will never come. Some things will never be easy. And if you do need help from a wise 18-year-old, let me know, okay?”

Varian smiled up at her. “Thanks, Nuru.”

“Thank you for taking me and Yong seriously,” she said, getting up. “No one would have ever called me wise up until now. You clearly see things in people most don’t.”

“Well, someone did that for me once too,” Varian found a feeling of fondness swelling up inside of him. “I was only 14 at that time,” he turned back to his distiller. “It’s almost done.”

“Oh!” Yong came running towards the camp, hair still dripping, sporting clean clothes. “It’s almost done?”

He skidded to a halt and stared at the almost empty main compartment. “You see all this residue?” Varian pointed out and Yong nodded vigorously. “That is the dirt that was in the water. Everything that is not water stays at the bottom here.” Varian poured the last bit of water down the small pipes and moved the distiller from the fire carefully. He unscrewed the part containing the clean water and used it to fill up their waterskins. “This will last us a day or two, I think.”

He waited for the glass to cool down while packing the parts that weren’t hot. Carefully trying he found the glass cool enough to grab. “I’m going to clean this and clean myself while I’m at it.”

“Okay, Yong and I will clear the camp and prepare Prometheus for travel,” Nuru said, nudging Yong to his tent. “You enjoy the water, okay?”

“I will. Thanks, Nuru,” Varian grabbed the glass and took fresh clothes and some cloth to dry himself with down to the river.

“Hugo?”

Hugo turned around to see Varian approach the water. “You’re still in the water?”

“Yeah,” Hugo smiled at Varian. “It’s pretty nice.”

Varian kneeled at the waterside and rinsed the glass piece from his distiller, rubbing at it to get the residue out. “You’ll get wrinkly if you stay in too long,” Varian said teasingly, tugging one eyebrow up.

“Then why are you making me wait?” Hugo responded.

“Because I’m actually helping out around the camp?” Varian quipped back.

“I did my share,” Hugo answered.

“Doing the dishes?” Varian smirked. “What labor.”

“Oh woe thee, whom worketh so hard on the distiller.” Hugo struck a dramatic pose, one arm laying over his head like he was about to faint.

Varian rolled his eyes, unable to keep the sincere smile from his lips. “Are you seriously stalling for time?” he shook the glass, trying to get as many drops out before wrapping it up in its cloth.

“No,” Hugo answered, voice void of drama. “I waited for you.”

Varian stopped in his track of pulling up his shirt. He turned to Hugo, who was making his way to shore. “What do you mean?”

“You’re too slow,” he said, grabbing Varian and using his element of surprise to yank him with his clothes on and all into the water.

Varian let out a shout in shock, eyes pulling closed and mouth slamming shut in expectance of meeting water. Instead, he found himself against the wet and bare chest of Hugo, his smile brimming with smugness. “You’re cute when you scream.”

“God, Hugo!” The young man found his footing in the rushing water, grabbing his now soaked shirt. “You know how long this is going to take to dry? We don’t ha-” he cut himself short as he saw how Hugo was staring at him. “Are you flirting with me again!?”

Hugo barked out a laugh, no smugness, no tease, just a straight out laugh. “Damn Varian. You _are_ bad at this,” he blinked away a tear.

Varian turned beat red, turning his back to the blonde to hide his face in his hands. Suddenly a pair of hands landed on his hip and he whipped around to face Hugo, who had crossed the distance Varian had created before. “Come, I’ll help you out of those clothes,” his finger curled around the rim of Varian’s shirt.

Something akin to an alarm went off inside of Varian. “NO!” Panic flared up as he in pure instinct drew back from Hugo, pulling his shirt out of his hands and down to cover his body. His face white with fear shot up to look Hugo in the eyes. When he saw Hugo holding up his hands in surrender, face taut with worry, was when he realized how he had reacted.

He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and did one more step back. “I-it is f- fine,” he turned away, the words seeming to block in his throat. “I-I get it off my-myself.”

“Yeah, okay,” Hugo’s steady voice sounded faux, forced and weak.

Varian undressed, fighting the wet clothes off him with effort. He threw the simple two pieces he was wearing unto shore and turned back to Hugo.

Hugo was staring off in the distance, eyes following the flow of the river. When hearing the movement in the water approach him he looked towards Varian, holding a soap bar. His cheeks were still flushed, but his face didn’t speak of a playful embarrassment anymore but shame.

“Sorry,” He seemed to almost force it off his lips. “For reacting like t-that.”

“No,” Hugo pressed. “Don’t apologize, _please._ I was going too far.”

Varian simply started quietly leathering up his arms. Eyes vaguely distant as his body moved on automatic. The two stayed in somewhat awkward silence for a while, while Varian cleaned himself.

Varian felt like he had ruined something, a moment between him and Hugo. But it had felt so wrong. His body had reacted so quickly without thought. He hadn’t meant to pull away like that, like Hugo had burned his skin. But he had. It had been like Hugo had burned him. In that moment his body had screamed at him, his mind went blank in panic.

He tightened his grip on the soap and scrubbed a bit harder. It was ridiculous! Why would he react like that!? Hugo hadn’t betrayed him… at least not after he switched sides, that is. Is that still lingering? Was he afraid that Hugo would turn his back on him? No! Donella wasn’t even the bad guy anymore. Who would he turn to, to betray him? There was no reason or way for Hugo to betray him. Hugo had tipped his hand and he had chosen _him_ when they still thought it counted. In the heat of the moment, Hugo had chosen Varian, not Donella.

Varian sighed as he scrubbed the sole of his right foot. He almost slipped but a firm arm of Hugo caught him in his lower back. More alarms went off, but not as intense this time. He had enough mind not to react on them and look up to find Hugo bent over him.

“Hey, watch it.”

Seeing the familiar face of Hugo, thinking back to the moment they shared in the tent yesterday, he managed to calm the bells ringing in his mind. He found his footing once again and thanked Hugo.

Varian finished his last foot and let himself sink completely in the water one last time to rinse it all off before turning to Hugo. “Done,” he tried to smile but was aware of how little the corners of his mouth tugged up. “Let’s go?”

Hugo seemed to debate something within his mind before suddenly speaking up. “I’m really sorry for alarming you back then,” Hugo said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“L-like what?”

“I mean… hindsight 20 20, stripping you on the spot was a stupid idea,” Hugo said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m _really_ sorry, Varian.”

Varian grabbed his left arm, eyes finding the water. “I’m not even sure why I reacted like that.”

“Because it was inappropriate,” Hugo answered. “Come, let's get ourselves dry and help Nuru and Yong with breaking up camp.”

They had stayed awkwardly quiet while drying off and putting on clean clothes. As they reached the camp Varian’s eyes fell on the Raccoon sitting on the back of Prometheus. “Ruddiger!?” he rushed to the animal and picked him up. “Where were you all night!?”

Ruddiger chittered back, nudging his nose into Varian’s neck. “I know you don’t like taverns, but you can’t leave Prometheus like that,” Varian said strictly. Ruddiger chittered again, pawing at Varian who sighed. “Just stay near the camp next time, okay?” He hugged the animal.

“You’ve finished up mostly, I see,” Hugo said, looking around the camp. “Always so fast Nuru.”

“I helped!” Yong chipped in.

“Let’s get this done and over with,” Varian said, putting Ruddiger down and pushing his sleeves up. “We can be in the next town before the evening if we leave soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of thanks to my two beta readers!  
> Once again Cayenne for helping me out! Check her stuff out on her Archives https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cayenne_Pepper or her Tumblr: https://cayenneavocado.tumblr.com/  
> Also, a thanks to my irl friend who also checked this (even without being in this fandom!) He's awesome! He hasn't posted anything as of yet but here's his account anyways: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsashthetic/pseuds/itsashthetic 
> 
> As always, feel free to let me know what you think :D (any ideas for what Varian is hiding yet? ^^)  
> And on ward I go to write more!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!  
> I'm really trying to keep up the pace with updating! I won't promise anything but I'm tying my best, just so you know ^^  
> I'm quite a few chapters ahead but I always like to keep a bit in between if I ever feel like I need to ad or remove something. I hope to upload within three weeks from now on!  
> Anyways, on with the chapter!

“So,” Hugo started, arms up high and his hands crossing behind his head in a stretch. “How much longer till we reach the next town?”

“Maybe one hour tops,” Varian said, eyeing the map. It had been a hot day and Varian was happy he had chosen his lighter clothes this morning, though the scarf might feel a bit warm, it did help with the dusty roads. This town was very popular and quite big. “I think we will face the normal traffic soon.”

Prometheus carried most of their belongings but Varian had decided to carry his staff and important belongings with him. He was afraid people might try to snatch his staff as most people thought it was a magical one. Busy towns usually meant more trouble, but also more gain.

“I’ve heard this town has a potion shop that sells healing potions,” Varian said, taking one more look at the route on the map before folding it. “I actually wanted to find out if that’s true.”

“Oh, I’ve heard that as well,” Nuru said. “People in the castle told me about it. They say the rumors are true and that it really works.”

“A working healing potion,” Hugo hummed. “Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?”

“I mean, healing hair is a thing in this world,” Varian shrugged. “Who knows, it’s worth checking out, right? It’s on the route back to the castle anyway.”

“I also need more supplies,” Yong said. “I’m running low on nitrate and having more sulfur wouldn’t be a bad thing either.”

“And maybe,” Varian added. “We could try and figure out how the potion is made. Maybe even enhance it.”

At this Hugo’s eyes sparked with eagerness. “Yes! We could totally do that!”

“You two and your science,” Nuru shook her head but couldn’t suppress a smile. She enjoyed watching them being so hyped about the prospect of making new potions to add to their ever-growing arsenal. She was happy it wasn’t something destructive for once.

Varian eyed Hugo walking on the other side of Prometheus. Usually, Hugo would walk beside him and take any opportunity to poke him or touch him in any other way. This time though, he seemed to have created distance between him and Varian. At the beginning of their adventures, he found himself irritated at the annoying closeness Hugo always sought but now, he missed it. He just hoped it would be over once they got into town again.

It didn’t take much longer for them to see the town in the distance. The number of people traveling to and from the town started to crowd the dusty roads and Varian pulled his scarf higher to filter his air. The group knitted a bit tighter together, making sure to watch each other’s back.

“Welcome to Aberdeen,” Nuru said. “One of my kingdoms busiest towns.”

The other three looked around in awe. The town was situated in a valley with large trees blocking out most of the skies, making it hard to find from afar. There were shops as far as the eye could see and most buildings held a unique wooden feel to them. Some buildings seem to share its foundations with trees. It all looked very natural though still crafted. A lot of people from different kingdoms roamed the roads and some people were doing business deals on the streets loudly.

“Incredible,” Varian looked around in awe, forgetting his worries about Hugo completely. “This place is amazing!”

“It is, isn’t it?” Nuru said, hands coming together in delight. “I haven’t been here often, but whenever my father did bring me here we had lots of fun!”

“So, this potion shop,” Hugo started, “Where is it?”

“Well, I know it’s called Girdas’ Potions Shop. But I have no idea where it is.” Nuru looked around her but didn’t see the name on the shops nearby. “This town is quite big and I doubt we’ll find it by just looking. I think asking would be faster.”

“Good idea,” Varian said, walking up to the first person who seemed to be no stranger to the town. “Sir,” he started, holding up a hand. “Could you help us find Girdas’ Potions Shop?”

“Ah, here for his famous healing potion, are we?” The man asked, taking in Varian’s clear foreign appearance. “It’s in the outer rings. If you take that alleyway,” the man pointed to a gap between two big buildings. “Five streets down and taking a left should bring you to his store. You won’t miss it.” The man laughed to himself like he made a joke before leaving Varian looking a bit puzzled.

Varian turned to his group and shrugged. They did as they were told, noting how the streets seemed to curve. It was like the streets were rings around some middle point.

“I guess this is why he called it rings,” Hugo said, taking in one of the town maps in one of the storefronts. “They all circle this point.”

“Odd,” Varian took his place next to Hugo, eying the map as well. “What could be the center?”

“I believe it’s the biggest tree,” Nuru provided. “It’s the tree whose roots this city has been built upon if I remember correctly.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Yong said, pushing Hugo to the side to have a look at the map.

Hugo’s shoulder met Varian’s and he pulled back out of the touch. Something he hadn’t done before. Usually, Hugo would take any opportunity to make Varian as uncomfortable as he possibly could by invading his personal space, mocking him if he complained. Now Hugo seemed to keep simply too much distance, though. Varian threw speculations to the wind and turned around to face Hugo, giving him an obviously confused look.

Hugo tried to act like he didn’t see him and was focused on the store holding more maps. Varian frowned at this and took a big step towards Hugo, who in turn stepped further away. He was about to say something about the obvious odd behavior of Hugo when Nuru spoke up.

“Let’s continue guys,” she said. “I don’t think the shop owner would like us starting at his maps for this long and not buying anything.”

“Okay,” Yong sang, continuing to walk down the road they were following.

Hugo simply shrugged and followed as well. Varian stared at his back for a moment, wondering what just happened. He shook his head and followed quickly.

They rather easily found the shop, it somehow looked flashy and very suspicious at the same time. The outside of the shop was decorated with drawing of glowing potions and particle effects that made it look rather childish. The name was painted with glowing paint as well, but the windows showed a very low lit inside, mostly hidden with thick curtains.

The group made eye contact and Hugo simply shrugged before entering. Varian followed suit. They passed the thick burgundy red curtains and found that indeed inside was low lit. The walls were filled to the brim with shelves stocked to their limits with different colored potions, some glowing eerily in the dark. It smelled a bit odd inside but Varian could pick out a certain familiar smell that reminded him of his own chemistry set. He read a few of the labels hanging from the vials before a deep voice startled him.

“Welcome!” it sounded oddly happy for how gruffly it was. “What can I do for you two?”

Varian noted Nuru and Yong hadn’t followed them in. He looked at the rather tall man. He had long, silver like hair and wore a hood that seemed big around his head. He almost seemed otherworldly.

“I’ve heard you sell healing potions,” Varian got right to the point. It somehow struck him as odd, how this man whose face was all angles and seemed very serious had such a bright, and might he add playful outside on his shop.

“Then you’ve heard well,” the man said, a certain pride in his face. “I do indeed sell a potion capable of healing you.”

“And how does that work exactly?” Hugo had placed himself at the counter and leaned on it like he was interrogating the man, sass flowing off of him.

The man pulled an eyebrow up. “You’re here to shop or try to pry secrets?”

“Well you see here, kind man,” Hugo started. “I’m a bit of a potion maker myself and I find it hard to believe you’ve made something that can magically heal people.” Hugo traced an invisible rainbow with his hands.

The shop owner looked unimpressed. “Does it really matter how it works? It works, that’s all you need to know.”

“But is it like a pain killer or does it actually heal wounds? Like a really bad cut for example?” Varian asked, his tone much more innocent curiosity.

The man seemed a bit softer towards Varian as he answered. “It speeds up the healing capacity of the body. So no, it’s not a painkiller. A deep cut should be healed in about five to ten minutes depending on its size and location on the body.”

“As in completely healed?” Hugo continued in his skeptical tone. “Or wounds simply closed?”

The man sharpened his eyes. “Healed. If the cut is clean enough, you’ll even be without a scar.”

Varian gasped in amazement. “Internal wounds?” he had shot his hand into the sky in his enthusiasm.

The man laughed at Varian, a fond kind of laugh. “It works for all physical wounds, regardless if it’s internal or external. It does not work against active poisons. Its basic effect is to heal. Not remove anything and change anything. Bones can be healed, but if the break isn’t aligned right it won’t be able to heal. See it as a fast forward function. Everything your body could heal it will heal and some.”

“Wow,” Varian held his chin as his mind raced through the possibilities of the potion and how someone could have concocted it.

“You have proof?” Hugo asked, eyes sharp, untrusting.

“If you buy one I can break your arm for you to try it out,” The man snarled, returning Hugo’s tone.

“Hugo..” Varian pulled him away from the man before they could start a staring battle and pulled him through the curtains, the outside light blinding him. “Why are you being so rude?” he hissed in a hushed voice.

“I don’t trust him or his potion,” Hugo answered. “I think he’s a con man.”

“If he is, you’d think interrogating him would make him spill the beans? And if he was wouldn’t he have some way to make people believe in it in some amazing way. It seems like he has dealt with a lot of people not believing him. I don’t feel like he’s a con man at all.”

“You’re just gullible.”

Varian paused on that, his face clearly reflecting his hurt feelings. “Well,” he said, voice forcefully kept even and sharp. “Maybe I am. But there is only one way to find out if it really works.”

Hugo looked guilty, his regret clear on his face. “Sorry I didn’t mean it like that. But yeah I guess you’re right. We can buy one, test it out and if it works buy one to try and recreate it.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They both returned to the shop owner. “How much?” Hugo asked, still sounding somewhat hostile, tipping his chin up, arms folded. Varian sighed at that, palming his forehead.

“50 gold pieces.”

Varian’s eyes grew gigantic and Hugo visibly stiffened. “50!?” Varian gasped.

“That’s,” Hugo had a hard time speaking. “That’s a _lot_. That’s too much!”

“Is saving your life not worth a lot? That is what this potion is capable of,” the man retorted.

“I guess, but,” Varian broke off, a flush prominent on his face. “I don’t have that kind of money.”

Hugo scratched his head. “I ehh, how much do you have on you Varian?”

“I have 28 gold pieces, I believe 67 silver and some copper,” Varian counted aloud, eyes skywards as he pulled at his memory. He did splurge last night after all and after a few meads it all got a bit blurry how many he had drank in total.

“I have about 32,” Hugo said. “We could buy one together, but we still wouldn’t be sure if it works at all.”

Varian hummed. “Splitting it would leave me with too little for the remainder of our travels,” he said, thinking out loud. “I’d rather not have less than a gold piece a day.”

“This is a big town. I bet we could do some guild work to get some money quick,” Hugo said, turning to the shop owner. “You have a guild board in this town?”

“There is,” the man answered. “We have multiple actually. And it isn’t too hard to find a well-paying job if you’re a good fighter. We do have a lot of trouble with the monsters roaming the forests surrounding the town.”

“We could take up a job to regain our lost finances and gain extra to buy a second one,” Hugo said, watching Varian deep in thought.

“Wouldn’t it put us back too much time-wise?” Varian asked, worry clear in his features. “Is all this really worth a potion that may or may not work?”

“It _does_ work,” the shop owner interjected. “You think I would still be in business if it didn’t?”

“Yeah, when you ask 50 bloody gold pieces a piece. Enough adventurers here who will buy one and leave the town again,” Hugo snarled at him, seeming ready to pull the man over his counter.

“Let’s discuss this with Nuru and Yong,” Varian said, putting a hand on Hugo’s shoulder. “That’s only fair to them.”

Hugo nodded and they both stepped outside. “And?” Nuru asked in anticipation. “You bought the potion?”

“No, not quite,” Varian said, scratching the back of his head. “It’s ahhh quite expensive.”

“50 gold pieces,” Hugo added.

Both the faces of Yong and Nuru dropped on that. “50!?” They both asked, blown away by the price.

“Do you even have that much?” Nuru asked.

“Together we do,” Hugo said. “But it would leave the both of us with low funds. It would mean we would have to take on a job here.”

“And I’m afraid we’ll need two. One to check, and one to recreate, the reason we wanted to buy it in the first place.” Varian said.

“Didn’t this all start as a fun project?” Yong asked. “Isn’t all this a bit much?”

“It is, isn’t it?” Hugo laughed.

“But, but,” Varian started, starstruck. “If it works! You know what that means!? It would be incredible! We could do so many things with a potion that potent. This can open so many doors!”

The three smiled at the sparkles in Varian’s eyes. It didn’t happen often that Varian got _this_ excited about something. Usually, when he does he goes into crazy mode and stops sleeping and taking care of himself until he has reached the goal he had. Hugo once had to wrestle Varian away from a project. They both landed quite a few hits until one final blow knocked Varian out. He had slept about 14 hours afterwards. Varian had been particularly grumpy after that.

“Why don’t we check out the guild boards before making a decision?” Nuru provided.

“Y-you wouldn’t mind us getting behind on our travel schedule?” Varian asked.

Nuru’s smile grew. “It’s fine. Father doesn’t know when precisely we’ll arrive anyways. We can stay here for a day longer. We were planning to stay in this town for the night after all.”

“Thank you!” Varian hugged Nuru in his excitement. “I’ll check out the boards right away!”

“Wait!” Hugo grabbed Varian by his orange scarf. “We don’t even know where the boards are. Let’s ask the shopkeeper. He seems to know.”

“Ah,” Varian flushed. “Right.”

“Well, we both have some shopping to do as well,” Yong said.

“Yes, we need some new rations for the coming travels,” Nuru hummed. “Why don’t we split up? Yong and I go shop together and we’ll take Prometheus and Ruddiger with us and you two go looking for a job. We can meet up in the center of the city in about an hour and a half ?”

“Sounds good,” Varian said. “Center, on the side of the tree facing north?”

“Okay,” Yong said. “See you in an hour and a half .”

“Yes see you then.” Hugo waved.

Hugo and Varian entered the shop to ask the owner where the boards were and started walking down the streets towards the central part of the city. Apparently, the boards were in the most middle ring of the city, so that was convenient. Hugo was taking the lead while Varian lagged behind. In the shop it had seemed like everything was back to normal between them but Hugo had been quick to make a great distance between them once again. If they were going to do a job, that could possibly be dangerous, they needed to work together. They couldn’t be in this awkward state if they had to fight monsters in the forest. That was the motivation he used to quicken his pace and fall in step beside Hugo. It wasn’t that he missed the dumb blonde invading his personal space at all! Don’t be silly!

Hugo wanted to quicken his step again but Varian spoke up before he could put distance between them again. “Hugo, what’s wrong?”

The older man stopped so abruptly, that it almost caused Varian to trip. Something unreadable was on Hugo’s face and Varian felt the need to step closer into Hugo’s presence but he kept himself from it.

“It’s better like this,” Hugo said abruptly, eyes not meeting Varian’s.

Varian frowned at this and stepped in front of Hugo, trying to meet his eyes. “What’s better like this?”

Hugo looked away, his face a mask. Varian thought he saw a sadness in Hugo’s eyes for a moment before it was replaced with steel.

“Is this about this morning?” He asked. “I’m sorry about this morning, okay?”

“ _Don’t_ apologise!” Hugo almost snapped at Varian. Varian did a step back at the sudden outburst. Why did Hugo sound so mad? “Never apologize for setting your boundaries,” he looked away, his voice sounding threatening in a way.

“Hugo,” Varian stepped in closer. “That… you think that was me rejecting you?”

The way Hugo’s face tightened and his brows sunk down further was answer enough for Varian. Instinctively he grabbed Hugo’s hands, pulling them to his chest, wanting to tell him that his feelings were mutual but then it all got stuck in his throat, his mouth open but empty of words.

Could he even answer Hugo’s feelings without telling his secret? Would that even be fair for Hugo to reciprocate his feelings when it might not be the way he expected to get it returned? What if Hugo didn’t want him after hearing his secret. What if he thought Varian had been leading him on? What if he hated him? What if… what if? There were too many 'what ifs' filling his mind.

Hugo had turned back to watch Varian who simply gaped without a sound. Hugo seemed only more hurt at the speechlessness of Varian and pulled away. “You don’t have to force yourself just to spare me,” Hugo sounded almost more disgusted than hurt. “I get it.”

Varian balled his first in an effort to push all his doubts away. Feeling the words failing him he grabbed Hugo’s face, regretting how rough he had pulled him towards him. In the same motion, he moved up and pressed his lips against Hugo’s, their teeth clanking in the far too clumsy and hastily attempt to kiss. Varian pulled away at the pain shooting through his mouth and he covered it with his hands hissing loudly at the throbbing in his teeth. He looked up to find Hugo standing stiff, barely reacting to the bumping that must have hurt his teeth as well. He seemed thoroughly confused. But a peek of worry spiked as he snapped out of his dazed look to reach out, checking if Varian was okay.

“I told you I’m bad at this,” Varian muttered, his hands folded over his mouth, a single tear brimming his right eye. “That really hurt, I’m sorry.”

Something flashed over Hugo’s features as he moved in, pulling Varian’s hands back. “Let me help you then.”

His thin and nimble fingers led Varian’s head into a position suited for their goal and leaned in to press his lips carefully against Varian’s. His lips moved gently against the others making small noises when he moved. Varian let his eyes fall shut and his hands found Hugo’s shirt blindly, holding tightly unto the older man. Hugo’s right hand was still under his chin, guiding his face but the other found his way into the small of Varian’s back.

Hugo was also the one to stop the kiss and lean back a bit, to have a good look at Varian’s flushed face. Varian looked downright winded, eyes half-lidded and his mouth still agape. Lust arose inside Hugo as he moved in again, lips finding Varian’s in a deeper kiss. This time it was much more wet and loud. He could hear Varian squeak at the suddenness of it all. The hand resting on his shoulders became less clinging and more pushing, as if he was trying to slow Hugo down. Hugo realized he was probably taking things far too fast for Varian’s liking and moved away from him right away.

His heart skipped a beat as he saw a string of saliva stretching between him and Varian. Varian covered his mouth again, looking very overwhelmed. Regret and lust mixed inside of Hugo and he pushed the latter one down hard. “Sorry, I got carried away.”

Varian let go of his mouth and rubbed at his wet and slightly swollen lips with the back of his hand. He still looked very winded but more awake now. He made eye contact and stepped closer, taking Hugo into a big hug. “P-please let’s keep it slow,” his voice sounded breathless. “ _Very_ slow.”

Hugo hugged him back. “Yes, of course,” he closed his eyes as he took in the form of Varian pressed against him. He had never been quite this touchy feeling when it came to hugs. Donella definitely never really hugged him. No one ever had, really, besides Varian. Having Varian this close, his body seemingly fitting perfectly against his made him wonder how he never missed this simple gesture of love. Being so close to the one he loves, close enough to take in his scent felt great.

Varian broke the contact after a while. “S-so, shall we go check out those boards?”

“Wait,” Hugo took Varian’s hand as he had turned to resume their previous path, stopping him. “Does this mean we’re dating?”

Varian paused for a moment. “I ehhh… I think I should figure out myself first.”

“Then why kiss me?” Hugo seemed a bit mad now. “First you kiss me last night, twice even! Then when I flirt with you, you seemed to hate every last bit of it. Now I tried to give you space and you kiss me again but you don’t want to date me? I- I- Varian I don’t understand you!”

Varian pulled his hand back, panic clear in his face. His breathing became rapid and his eyes darted all over the place to find an answer. How could he possibly explain? “I- I…”

“Varian,” Hugo pinched the bridge of his nose. “I really do want to understand. Please help me out here.”

Varian balled his first, trying to gather his bravery. “I’m in love with you, Hugo,” he said finally. “I really am. But there is just this… this _thing_ … I need to work that out first.”

Hugo measured up the tense looking form of Varian, trying to read him as much as he could. He started very carefully. “I-is it because I am a man?”

Varian shook his head.

“Then, do you want me to give you space?”

Varian was quiet for a bit before giving the slightest shake.

“Then what should I do? You want to make out but not call it anything?”

“No,” Varian’s voice sounded small, unsure. “I just want you to be you,” he said, looking at the ground. “Like how it was before you told me it was flirting and not teasing.”

“You want me to tease you?” Hugo’s eyebrows flew up. “Kinky!”

“No!” Varian blurted out, face flushed, only to look very dizzy for a moment. “Yes,” his voice was barely a whisper. “I guess.”

Hugo laughed at how Varian had turned beat red. He pulled the boy into a side hug as he had done often. Smugly invading Varian’s personal space like it was his second nature. “’Kay will do!”

Varian smiled at Hugo as he started marching down the road, pulling Varian along in his sideways hug. “Just please be patient with me, okay?”

Hugo smiled a crooked smile, one that warmed Varian’s heart at how familiar it was. “Just don’t make me wait too long,” he winked and Varian thought that maybe finally he was starting to understand this flirting thing Hugo did so effortlessly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Cayenne and Itsashthetic for beta reading! You two are amazing! <3  
> Check out their stuff on their AO3 accounts archiveofourown.org/users/Cayenne_Pepper & archiveofourown.org/users/itsashthetic/pseuds/itsashthetic
> 
> ps. I notices that my notes are a bit messed up, and I don't understand why >,< (I am still new to AO3 after all) I'm trying to fix this!
> 
> Feel free to share your thoughts! <3 I love hearing from you guys and see you making guesses at to what Varian is hiding!  
> Until next time~


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been delaying posting this because I’m so god damn tired. Well, here it is! I’m so sorry for the wait guys, but mental health is a thing and it’s not being kind or very cooperative with me. I hope you enjoy this chapter! :>

“This sounds dangerous,” Nuru said, looking at the written job description. “Are you two sure about taking on this job?”

“We’ll manage,” Hugo said. “They say these monsters bother the town very often. People chase them off every time.”

“Yeah, but having to go its hole,” Nuru said, holding the piece of paper with worry clear on her face. “It’s a lot of gold too. It seems like a big job.”

“We just have to retrieve that merchants bag,” Hugo shrugged. “He’s just very desperate to get his goods back.”

“If it’s too much for us we can simply return,” Varian added. “We gathered some info and these beasts have their holes close to the town. Retreating shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.”

“I wanna join!” Yong said, jumping up and down. “I made new bombs, we can gas them out or stun them.”

“We’re well prepared,” Varian pressed on.

Nuru frowned, looking at the three guys and down at the job paper. “100 gold _is_ a lot.”

“We’ll be careful! You know we’ve faced much worse with the Seven Trails,” Yong said.

“Alright,” Nuru sighed. She tugged at her shoulder. “Just… do you need me?”

“I understand you don’t want to take unnecessary risks Nuru,” Varian said. “We are well aware you only did the Seven Trails to help your kingdom. We wouldn’t dare to ask you to do this just for our alchemy joys.”

“Thanks,” she smiled at Varian. “Oh and I found an inn for the four of us. Eberdeen Inn, it’s a bit expensive but I figured we could all use a good bed for once.”

“I certainly do,” Hugo said stretching. “How much do we owe you?”

“No, no,” she shook her head. “This one is on me.”

“You’re sure?” Varian asked. “We agreed to share these kind of costs equally between us. We can pay for it, especially after this job.”

“No, I couldn’t,” she shook her head. “I decided on an inn without you guys. Besides, they only had three rooms left. So we do have to share.”

“I’ll share with blue stripe,” Hugo said, nudging Varian. “He’s tiny enough.”

“And you’re thin enough,” Varian retorted.

“What did you say?” Hugo rose and leaned on Varian’s head. “Can’t hear you from all the way down there.”

Varian simply rolled his eyes but couldn’t help to smile. He was happy Hugo was acting like he had always done. He had missed it the whole day, and now, with the sun setting slowly, it felt like a new day.

“Well, it’s getting late.” Nuru got up. “I’ll head off to the inn. Just find me in room 203 and I’ll hand you your keys.”

“Oh don’t we want to drop off the things we don’t need?” Varian asked. “And Prometheus’ bags has some gas bombs I do want to bring along.”

“Sure, let’s do that first.” Hugo took his weight off of Varian.

They went to the inn, Prometheus got a spot with the other mammals, Varian paying for some food for him. Ruddiger followed Varian up to his room and crawled into one of the beds.

“Welp, I guess that one is mine then,” Varian laughed. He unpacked some stuff and repacked other things and slung his smaller backpack over his shoulder. He clicked a few glowing balls to the belt he’d fastened over his shoulder. He fastened his staff into a holder he had created on his backpack. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Hugo was rearranging some things in his backpack as well. “Aaaalmost.”

Varian grabbed an apple from his food supplies and threw it at Ruddiger who jumped out of his laying position to catch it mid-jump. “Now behave and stay here, okay Ruddiger?”

The raccoon chittered contently and curled up with the apple, nibbling on it slowly.

“Okay, ready!” Hugo got up, tightening his bag’s straps.

“Let’s see how Yong is doing,” Varian stepped outside and so did Hugo. Hugo locked the door and Varian moved to the room opposite from theirs and knocked on the door.

“Yes, coming,” Yong called through the closed door.

Varian opened the door to find a mess. “How?” he looked around. Somehow the kid had managed to make to room look like something exploded inside. But not with his usual explosives but something containing clothes and other personal belongings. “How is it _this_ messy already!?”

“I couldn’t find my long distance rockets,” Yong said, stuffing some more rockets into his backpack.

“And you looked for those with your clothes becaaaause?” Hugo asked, peeking inside over Varian’s shoulder.

“Oh, I don’t really have my stuff organized like that,” he boy answered casually, stepping over the mess towards the door. “But I’m ready to leave now!”

Varian and Hugo gave each other a look saying ‘not my kid’ before shrugging. “Sure, let’s go then.” Hugo said.

The three of them made it to the edge of the town. Varian was rereading the details and the gathered information. “It was stolen near this port,” he said looking at the paper. “The sun has set so they should come out around this time.”

“Have you ever fought Minderbeasts?” Yong asked, taking out some of his fireworks.

“Nope,” Hugo answered. “But from what we’ve gathered they’re not that bad.”

“They have potential though,” Varian added. “It has a long almost beak like snout it uses to grab foxes and bunnies from their holes, so it has quite some reach. It has claws it uses for digging their own holes. It’s known to use its claws to grab into bags and such to steal it.” Varian took his staff from its holder and popped in a ball with sleeping gas. “But we don’t need to kill it, just knock it out or chase it off. When hurt they tent to retreat.”

Hugo pulled his quarterstaff and a sleep bomb as well. “We need to find one with a bad scar over its left side, our right, from its muzzle to its ear. Apparently the merchant had done some damage before it retreated with his belongings.”

“So we have to make it retreat to its hole, not knock it out,” Varian added. “So be careful before you attack.”

The three of them had left the path and moved further into the forest. Varian’s staff worked both as a weapon and a lantern. Yong carried a small lantern as well, both for light and to quickly ignite his fireworks with. Not even the moon could penetrate the thick layer of leaves that covered both the forest and the town.

“Wait,” Varian stopped. “You hear that?”

The group had stopped as well, straining their ears to hear the faintest of rustling. They stepped a bit closer to each other, holding their weapons ready.

“It’s circling us,” Varian whispered. They turned their backs at each other, all three ready to take whatever would come from their side.

In a flash a hairy beast jumped from the bushes and lurched for Yong. Varian was only just in time to slam it down with his staff, breaking the glass ball popped in it. The beast shook its head before slumping back down from the gas.

“They are _fast_ ,” Varian said, his shock clear.

“I can’t fire off my firework this fast,” Yong’s voice wavered in worry.

A loud whimper sounded as Hugo hit one right before it could bite him. “ _Way_ faster than they gave them credit for!”

“Yong, stay between us,” Varian said. “There are more of them nearby.”

Varian popped in a new ball into his staff, keeping it in front of him defensively. “I don’t believe there are much more of them here.” Varian said, eyes straining in the dark to see the beasts.

Hugo slammed his quarterstaff into a particular big one. It whimpered but went in for another bite. Hugo threw his gas bomb on it. It howled in pain at that and ran off. He pulled one more from his backpack, ready for the next attack.

Varian used the side of his staff to hit one beast from the side. It was knocked out cold.

The three of them stood quiet for a moment or two before they relaxed. “I think that where the ones nearby for now.” Hugo said, pushing his blond locks from his face. “They are more intense than I thought.”

“No worries, we’ve got this,” Varian encouraged. “Their holes shouldn’t be too far from here.”

Hugo laughed. “I’m certainly not giving up, pipsqueak.” He stepped forward leading the group.

Varian decided to lag behind a bit, keeping a close eye on their flanks. These beasts were fast and he didn’t feel like finding out just how strong those oddly long jaws are. Yong stayed in the middle, fireworks still ready, but not as brave as he was before.

“I think I see one,” Yong said, pointing.

Varian looked past Yong’s shoulder, eyes pinching to see in the dark. A Minderbeast jumped from the bushes and Varian caught its bite with his staff, blocking it but it nearly reached him with its long mouth. The mouth was almost as long as Varian’s arms at full length and due to Varian stretching his arm it quickly undid Varian’s balance. Varian fell to his back, focusing everything he had on keeping his grip on the staff keeping the beast just out of reach from his face. Yong was quick to throw one of his stunning fireworks at the beast and it let go to flee from the loud noise and stinging light. Hugo hurriedly picked Varian up from the ground. Varian gasped for air for a moment before taking a stance ready for a new attack.

“Thanks, Yong,” He said, eyes peering around. “I don’t know how long I could have kept it from biting my face off.”

“I see one with a scar!” Hugo called out, pointing at bushes on the other side.

“Okay, let me!” Varian dug his hand into his backpack, feeling for a ball with the right rim. He found one with ease and pulled out a bright pink ball and switched out the blue ball in his staff. Hugo pinched his eyes at the brightness of the ball.

The beast went in for an attack and Varian hit it easily with his staff, the ball breaking on impact. The pink liquid spread over the back of the beasts neck and it whimpered loudly as the acid bit it through its thick fur.

The team had a moment to have a good look on the animal’s face and saw a scar that seemed to follow the given description. It seemed to snap from its daze and retreated whimpering.

“I think that’s the one we’re looking for!” Varian followed after the beast.

Hugo and Yong followed suit. The three rushed through the bushes but the animal was much faster by far and left their sight in no time.

“We can’t keep up,” Hugo panted heavily.

“No way,” Yong grabbed his side, wheezing.

Varian came to a stop, gasping as well. His stamina was far from bad but sprinting full out like this had even him winded. “It,” he gasped. “Escaped that-” Another gasp. “That way.”

“How do you-” Hugo cut himself short as he saw the bright pink specs on the ground as he followed Varian’s pointing finger. “You genius asshole!” he pressed his lips against Varian’s for just a second before pulling back.

Varian had frozen up completely at the semi insult and kiss. “Wha-”

“Tell me next time,” Hugo pressed.

Yong was looking to the ground, gathering his breath and as he looked up he saw a disheveled looking Varian. “What?” he had clearly missed something.

“Nothing,” Hugo sung, walking over to where he saw the bright pink splotches. “Varian simply shouldn’t keep his masterful plans for himself.”

“I well- I just figured it out in the spur of the moment. If I had known they were this fast I would have prepared something better than this”

“No, no. This is perfect. These beasts are color blind, so it’ll think it’s blood and is probably fleeing to its hole,” Hugo said. “If it knew we were following it, it might not go to its hole.”

“Well it’s also an acid,” Varian said. “It might be more aggressive since it’s in pain.”

“Okay, that might not be ideal,” Hugo said, stepping through the bushes.

They tracked the pink through the forest for a bit. Varian hushed Yong for chatting too much. “They never stray too far away from their hole and if it hears us it might flee.”

After about 10 minutes of careful walking, searching for pink drops here and there they found a hole. It was rather big and could easily fit a human standing up at the highest point. Pink was all over the walls from the hole.

“This is it,” Hugo whispered, taking out one of his sleeping gas balls. He rolled it in and it slowly descended into the depts of the hole. Blue gas filled the underground tunnel and the trio waited for it to settle.

They climbed down, careful not to make too much noise or sliding on the loose dirt. “No way,” Varian breathed as he saw the end of the hole, filled with not just the beats and one merchant’s bag but with dozen of bags. The pink acid had mostly been scraped off on the walls in an attempt to get rid of its biting property, no doubt. The pink lit up the cave just about enough to see what was littered around in the hole.

“Score,” Hugo whispered. “Loot.” He pulled his fist towards himself in a victorious gesture.

The beast moaned in its sleep, whimpering slightly. Varian realized there was still enough acid on the beast to hurt it even through the sleep gas. This means it could wake up at any moment.

“No time, Hugo.” He said back in a hushed voice. “It could wake up at any moment.”

Hugo looked at the beast for a moment, seeing it still asleep. “No, no, it’s fine,” He said, handing Varian the one of the bigger bags. “We can carry some more out and sell it.” He handed Yong the merchants bag and another smaller bag.

Hugo could see Varian hesitate for a moment, his eyes going back to the beast resting before he seemed to grit his teeth. He moved in and grabbed another big looking bag and moved back to Yong trying to get out but was weighed down by the big merchant’s bag.

Hugo started to grab some smaller pouches and bags and fasten as much as he could to his own backpack. He vaguely noticed Varian helping Yong out of the cave from the corner of his eyes. Just a quick moment of distraction as he had a good view on Varian’s behind. He snapped his attention back to the treasure. He could gawk at Varian all he wants on a later moment, first they needed to get as much useful stuff out of here.

Hugo was searching through a rather big and old looking sack to see if it was worth carrying when he heard a growl. Hugo’s heart skipped a beat before he could turn around and see the beast had awoken. It rounded on Varian in an instant who could only just turn around to catch the brunt of the attack. The beast had given a vicious swipe with its paw. The long and strong nails cutting through Varian’s forearm like sharp knives.

It was the cry of pain coming from Varian that snapped Hugo out of his stupor. He started running for Varian who had tumbled backwards at the pure force of the swipe and was now being towered by the beast for a second attack. Hugo could see Varian scramble for one of the balls on his belt but Yong’s voice gained Hugo’s attention.

“Flash!” the boy had yelled, firing off one of his fireworks.

Hugo covered his eyes, closing them just in time for the darkness to turn to bright red behind his eyelids. As the light faded he continued his dash towards Varian. He grabbed him and hoisted him back to his feet.

The beast was stunned for a moment by the light but it seemed to have recovered far too fast as it lunched for Varian’s right arm. To Hugo’s horror he hadn’t been able to pull Varian away fast enough. The beast had reached out with its beak like snout and snapped it shut with awful precision around Varian’s already bleeding arm. Varian let out a scream of pain, his eyes shut and tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. Hugo tightened his grip on Varian’s left arm but the beast was far stronger and ripped Varian out of Hugo’s hold. The image of pure despair in Varian’s face, hand stretched out towards him in hopeless effort of getting a hold of Hugo was something that would haunt him. He couldn’t do anything but watch how Varian was pulled back by his right arm and was shaken around like a ragdoll. In a very nauseating way it reminded Hugo of a wolf playing with its pray before devouring it.

He wasn’t sure if the beast’s grip had loosened or if Varian’s arm had given out, he so hoped the first, but Varian flew out of the beast’s hold up against the wall. Varian gave one final yelp of pain at hitting the wall and a sickening stud sounded as his body landed on the ground hard.

Hugo had expected the beast to turn on them now. Varian was clearly out for the count and laid lifelessly on the floor besides it. But instead it seemed to sniff around and go for Varian once again.

“Oh no you don’t!” Hugo had pulled his sword, one he didn’t think he had to use tonight, but was so happy to have it on him anyways. Hugo stabbed the Minderbeast in its already scarred left eye before the beast could take another bite or swipe at Varian. The beast howled in pain before swiping at Hugo. Its paw send Hugo flying to the other side of the hole, landing hard between all the bags the beast had gathered.

Yong was firing off rocket after rocket, trying to keep the beast from going for Varian once again. The beast tried to swat the rockets away as it howled in agony.

The sound of explosions pulled Hugo out of his momentary daze and didn’t hesitate to jump back up, picking up the sword that laid beside him. He ignoring the painful sting on his left arm and made a sprint for the beast, sword ready. He dodged a few rockets and attack the beast with a jump, throwing all his weight into it, he plunged the sword down into the beast’s head. It gave a final screech as the blade broke through the skull with little effort. It crumbled lifelessly to the floor, a loud thud announcing the fall of the great beast.

Hugo pulled out his sword and took a step back, panting, ready to attack it again if it turned out to be still alive. A long and painful silence stretched within the hole, Hugo shaking from the adrenaline rushing though his body and Yong staring in shock at the entire scene from above.

When it somehow clicked that the beast was indeed dead, Hugo dared to look away from it, his eyes landing on Varian who laid awkwardly sprawled on the floor. A new surge of adrenaline shot through his body as he dropped the sword. The sound of metal clanking on the floor was deafening in the much too silent hole. Hugo almost fell over his feet to cross the four steps between him and Varian only to fall to his knees besides the younger man.

Hugo’s breath staggered for a moment as he almost hesitated to touch Varian. It wasn’t until he saw Varian’s chest rise again that he moved in quickly, pulling him out of his oddly angled sprawl and on to his back. Yong sat down beside him, face almost as pale as Varian’s.

“I- is he-?” Yong’s voice sounded unsure and he was clearly unable to finish that sentence.

“No,” Hugo answered. He let his hand caress the pale face of Varian just for one moment before moving away the black and blue strands of hair to see the source of the blood. It was a deep cut on his head, one he must have obtained when he either hit the wall or the ground. Blood was running out of it at astounding speed but he didn’t think the cut was too deep or serious. Hugo was worried that it was not only a cut but also a concussion.

“He’s not dead. He’s out cold,” he continued as untied Varian’s orange scarf and tied it tightly around Varian’s head, trying to stop the cut from bleeding out too much. His eyes dipped down at the other problem, the biggest problem. His stomach made a nasty flip as his eyes landed on the arm. He actually needed to swallow hard and pressed a hand against his mouth. He took a shaky breath, he cannot throw up now, he had to keep it together for Varian.

He let the breath out and took in the situation with his arm. Most skin was gone from Varian’s forearm, there was a big bite taken from his muscles and was torn at other places. To Hugo’s horror he could see the white of bone peeking through here and there between the blood gushing out.

Hugo took of his outer layer and ripped of a sleeve from his under shirt, ignoring the red stains growing on his left arm. He had to focus on Varian now. Whatever was going on with his own arm could wait, it wasn’t hurting that bad anyways. He used the long piece of fabric to tie of Varian’s arm. He had to stop the blood as much as he could and with no medical supplies on hand, this was the best he could do.

He put on his jacket and watched his handy work. There was simply nothing more he could do here. This wound… this situation, it’s bad. Real bad! He needed to get Varian back to the town and take care of the wounds so he could give him the healing potion. The shop owner had pressed that wounds should be cleaned if you wish for the potion to work properly.

Almost automatically he started to shake Varian carefully to try and wake him. “Hey,” he caressed Varian’s face again. “Hey, wake up.”

The lack of Varian reacting or waking up seemed to unsettle Yong a lot. “You know what, it’s better like this,” Hugo lied, trying to calm the fretting boy. “He’d be in a lot of pain if he was awake.”

Yong seemed to buy it and relaxed a bit. “I-is he going to be okay?”

Hugo forced a smile on his lips, while nausea was threatening him, his mind swaying dangerously. “Yeah,” the words tasted like bile on his tongue. “He’s going to be just fine.”

 _Lies!_ His mind screamed at him, the image of Varian’s arm burning behind his eyes. How could Varian ever be okay after this? They didn’t even know if the potion worked! What if it didn’t? Could Varian even survive this? He was still bleeding. Oh god there was just so much blood. It was pouring out of him like rain.

He pushed all those thoughts away and jumped into action. “He’s going to be fine if we get him to the town,” Hugo was almost surprised at how steady his voice sounded, how confident he sounded in that moment. “Help me get him on my back and I’ll carry him.”

Yong nodded, looking stout-hearted as never before.

Hugo took his backpack off his back and hung it the other way around. Now that his backpack was leaning at his front he had room for Varian. Getting Varian on his back was a whole other task. He wasn’t sure if Yong could carry a fully limp Varian unto his back so he did a bit of pre work. He placed Varian into a sitting potions a bit uphill, facing towards the depth of the hole. He told Yong to hold him in place as he moved his back toward Varian. The way the ground curving downwards helped Yong just that amount needed for them to hoist Varian unto Hugo’s back. Varian’s arms slung over Hugo’s shoulders and Hugo pulled his legs around him so he could support Varian from below.

Hugo climbed up with help from Yong and they found two bags near the end of the tunnel, where Yong had thrown them to free his hands. Yong eyed it for a moment, the sight of both their objectives and loot weighing heavy on him. Yong grabbed the merchant’s bag and eyed the other bag. Should he try and carry both on top of the already shared luggage from the three of them.

“Should I-?” he started quietly.

“Just do whatever with it!” Hugo snapped at the boy but regretted it right away. Hugo stomach had dropped as his eyes landed on the loot. Remembering far too vividly how Varian had voiced his though of just getting out before the beats awoke. If only he had listened to Varian. That loot had not been worth this! He had been too selfish, to greedy. Now Varian paid the price. It was him who had wanted the loot, not Yong. This was in no way Yong’s fault. It was all his. Seeing that bag just made him realize how mad he was at himself, at this situation.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to snap at you,” Yong stayed quiet, face still pale. “Just… see if you can carry it, if not let it be. We can buy medicine from it but please, only if you can.”

Yong nodded, tying the extra bag to his backpack to leave his hands empty for Varian’s staff. It had been loaded with sleeping gas once again but Yong wondered if he had enough power to break the glass with a swing. He decided not to think about it too much as the duo slowly tracked back to the road leading to the town.

Hugo had a hard time carrying Varian but did not complain as he stepped through some bushes scratching at his face. He had carried Varian before, but never this long, or this loaded with their belongings. And there was the added weight on his heart, the urgency coming from the heat of blood slowly seeping into his clothes as well. It felt like he was caring the burden of Varian’s life on his shoulders, the burden of his mistake. He hated how limp Varian was as he kept on walking on wards, kept on placing one feet before the other, his speed never wavering. Hugo would bring Varian back. Hugo would get Varian help before it was too late. Varian would get through this, somehow, someway. And he would fight to get Varian there. That was a silence promise he made to himself in that moment, tired feet taking yet another steady step.

It felt like breaking through the surface of water when they finally broke through the three line, separating the wild from the flattened ground. They had reached the dusty path leading to the town. It was like Hugo could take in the needed breath again. They were close, they were so very near. The light of the ports were like a shiny beacon flagging them into the towns safety.

Guards noticed them mostly right away. Two of them made their way up to them. “What happened!?” the dark-skinned man asked, sheeting his sword to take some of Varian’s weight off Hugo.

“Minderbeasts,” Yong said as the shorter and bit more porky man took their flank, sword drawn. “We tried to retrieve something from one of their holes.”

“Did you enrage it or something?” The man helping Hugo asked. “They’re usually a rather cowardly beast.”

“I think we did,” Hugo said, happy to have some of the ballast relieved off his back. “We thought we had put it to sleep but it had woken up. It attack our friend and didn’t stop even after we blinded it.”

The man at the back hissed. “That was a wrong move indeed. They can laser focus on the scent of something it sees as threatening. Blinding it made it rely on that. Thus making the person they last attacked or where attack by their target.”

The guilt was written all over Yong’s face and Hugo picked up on that in a snap. “This isn’t your fault Yong! You did what you could to protect us. It was me who wanted to stick around to get the loot.”

Yong didn’t seem to convinced but turned his eyes on the road ahead of him. They made their way back to the inn, the two guards helping Hugo carry Varian to his room. They carefully placed him on the floor, thinking it be better they cleaned him there so they wouldn’t soil the bed.

“Go get Nuru,” Hugo said to Yong as the guards left to get some medical supplies from the local doctor.

Hugo turned to Varian to find two glazed over eyes peer up at him. The sight of Varian seeming on the edge of being alive or dead twisted Hugo’s heart painfully. “Hey,” he cupped the boy’s cheek. “We’ve got you.”

Varian seemed to waken up a bit more and hissed as he tried to move. He gasped and the remaining color vanished from his face. “It hurts,” his voice sounded weak and was barely recognizable between the gasps.

“I’m going to make something for you,” Hugo promised, letting his finger slip off of Varian’s face slowly, before turning to his belongings. He rummaged through his belongings and found the pastel pink potion that had started this whole ordeal. But they needed to clean his wounds before they could give it to him. He took it out but kept looking.

He found a few potions he had made before and some ingredients he needed. Mostly on automatic he started mixing and adding to create something he had done before. He had made it often when he was still a rather bad thief and hurt himself often. Something to relieve pain. He’d have to make it stronger this time though.

He added some more of the rosemary to the mix in his mortar and started working on it vigorously. Varian moaned but he pushed it back as he concentrated on creating this potion.

The door slammed open and Nuru gasped loudly as she saw Varian propped up against the wall.

“Varian!” she took a big steps to cross the distance and sat down before him. She carefully took his head into her soft hands and lifted his head to make eye contact.

Varian hissed at the movement but somehow managed a strained smile at her.

She let a sob of relieve escape her lips as she saw he was conscious. “What happened to you?” she asked, tears spilling freely.

“It’s my fault,” Hugo said, his back still turned to the others as he was working on mixing his dry ingredients with his wet. “I didn’t listen to him.”

Nuru’s face tightened in worry but didn’t answer Hugo’s bitter words. She watched as Hugo gave one last firm shake at the potion and turn to them. He lifted Varian’s chin and tipped the potion into Varian’s mouth. Varian drank the entirety of the potion without complaint.

“This will do you good.” He said, his eyes locking with Varian’s glazy ones. 

The door opened again and this time it was the guards carrying medical supplies. Both Nuru and Hugo took the supplies with thanks and they started to unpack. Nuru worked on the head wound while Hugo grit his teeth as he took the disinfectant and some clean cloth. They had to clean the wounds well before giving the healing potion.

He poured some of the liquid on the cloth before attentively dapping it into the wound. Varian screamed out in pain at this. Hugo had pulled back at the shout and his head spin at the sound of Varian’s scream.

“S-sorry,” Varian voice sounded breathless between heavy pants.

“I have to do this, Varian,” Hugo watched as Varian moved his shirt up with his free hand and crunched it up to bite down on it. Hugo grabbed his now free hand and give a firm squeeze. “Just squeeze me, okay Varian.”

Varian nodded and Hugo started dapping again. Varian moaned and grunted against the pain, his teeth clamping down on his shirt, trying not to scream. His eyes shut in pain as tears rolled down his face. His hand squeezed with all his might at Hugo as he continued to clean the wound.

Hugo tried to steel himself but the sight of the wound and the way Varian squirmed under his touch made him dizzy. Nausea spiked inside him but he pushed down and finished cleaning his arm. He moved back to grab the healing potion, not letting go of Varian. “Drink this.”

Varian did as he was asked. He just hoped with everything inside of him it would work. Please let this guy have the actual wonder drug and not sold them a funny colored drink.

They paid the guards for the supplies before left with the remaining aid when everything seemed under control. Nuru was working on cleaning the blood from Varian’s body and Yong just sat in the corner, face still pale.

The painkillers Hugo had made seemed to work as Varian slowly nodded off. Nuru watched the pain slowly drip out of his features as he became more relaxed until his head lulled forwards. She rubbed the last dried blood from his face too see the far to light complex and something angry arose in her.

“You said it was an easy gig!” anger seemed to suddenly explode from Nuru.

Hugo flinched at the words thrown his way. “It was supposed to be!” he snapped back.

“Then how come our friend is missing half of his arm!?” Nuru shouted, getting up to round on Hugo. “Why didn’t you protect him!?”

“I made mistakes, okay!?” Hugo shouted back. “But at least I was there to _try_ and protect him!”

“Oh don’t you dare play that card!” she spat back. “Was all this really worth that stupid potion we’re not even sure works!?”

“No!” Hugo towered over Nuru. “I never said it was!”

“G-guys,” Yong’s quiet voice silenced the two louder ones. They both turned on Yong who was still curled up on the floor, face pale. “Please.”

The anger disappeared from Nuru and Hugo as quick as it has appeared. Nuru sighed and turned to Hugo. “I’m sorry. Of course you didn’t want this to happen.”

Hugo shook his head. “It was me playing it risky. It is my fault and all for some loot. I’m so stupid!”

Nuru stepped closer to Hugo and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know you didn’t want this to happen, especially to Varian. I _know_ you care about him, you have been for a long time now. If that potion doesn’t work we’ll figure something else out.”

“What is there to do if it doesn’t?” Hugo asked, voice trembling from the repressed tears. “He’s been bleeding so much.”

“Well, I’ve been told this city holds a lot of other races besides humans. They said some have magical abilities. Maybe we can find a healer of sorts,” Nuru said. “I know you are quite the magic sceptic, and Varian was too at the beginning. But if it saves him…”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to save him,” Hugo pressed. “I’ll in believe anything.”

“I will try to contact the mayor of the city. He’ll know who I am, he will help us,” she said with a certain confidence. Up till now she had not revealed her status that easily in the outer parts of her kingdom. She was afraid they would be held up if people knew royalty was visiting their towns. “I’ll go see him right away.”

“N-Nuru,” Yong started. “Hugo, I think,” the two looked at Yong, still on the floor. He pointed at Varian. “I- I think his bleeding stopped.”

Both their eyes grew as their heads snapped towards Varian. It looked like the blood started to dry on top of the remainders of Varian’s forearm. They both looked at each other for a moment.

“I-is it working?” Nuru barely dared to ask.

“I think,” Hugo sounded very unsure as he kneeled down besides Varian. He unwrapped the dressing Nuru had done on Varian’s head and saw an almost healed cut. He gasped and dropped the bloodied bandages.

Nuru took a loud breath and picked up the bandages and looked at it. “The blood in the bandages haven’t even completely dried yet,” she said. “There is no way his head could have healed this quick.”

“The man said the time it took for healing depended on the wound. It’s been, what, ten minutes since we gave him the potion? This must be the potion working!” Hugo said.

“That would mean…” Yong said, daring to come closer. “That his arm would be better soon too?”

Hugo sighed in relieve. “Yes,” he answered. “And from the looks of it, it seems that it has already started to heal. At the very least it has stopped bleeding.”

“That is great news!” Nuru added, relieve clear in her voice. “Him bleeding to death was the biggest threat. His live is no longer in danger.”

Yong suddenly jumped into Nuru’s arms, sobbing loudly. “I thought he was going to die,” he cried, hand crumbling up Nuru’s night gown. “And it was all my fault!”

Nuru and Hugo exchanged worried looks before they refocused on Yong’s crying form.

“No of course it’s not your fault Yong!” Nuru said, brushing her thin fingers through his black hair. “Only that Minderbeast is truly at fault. You tried your best.”

“But if I hadn’t blinded it, it wouldn’t have attacked Varian again.” Yong continued to sob. “I almost killed Varian.”

Nuru hugged the boy a bit tighter before pulling away. She lifted the boy’s face to look him in the eyes. “Yong,” she started, voice warm and kind. “You are not responsible for this, you hear me?”

Yong didn’t react as he simply tried to stop sobbing.

“You hear me?” she repeated more firmly this time.

He nodded, sobs still coming in hiccups.

“Good,” she sounded less bossy now. “Now we’re going to leave Varian to sleep and we’ll see how things are going tomorrow, okay?” he nodded again. “You’re tired and it far too late anyways.” She said, leading Yong to the door.

She looked over her shoulder to Hugo, to confirm if he needed help or not. Hugo simply held up his thump and turned to Varian. Nuru left the room to bring Yong to his and return to her own afterwards.

It was only now that Hugo noticed Ruddiger. The raccoon had wormed it’s way under Varian’s good hand that had laid limply at the ground besides him and had positioned his head under the hand like Varian had been patting it. Varian might even have before he lost consciousness. Hugo simply hadn’t notice the animal until now.

He lifted Varian up and carried him bridal style to his bed, laying him down carefully. He covered him with a blanket and put his hurt arm on top of it. The arm already looked better than before. He grabbed one of the pillows and propped it up under his arm to make sure it would stay on top of Varian’s chest. He didn’t want to risk it starting to bleed again.

Ruddiger jumped on the bed and placed himself next to Varian’s face, chittering ever so softly.

“He’ll be alright, Ruddiger,” Hugo gave the raccoon a quick pet over the head before he cupped Varian’s face. “I promise.”

Hugo let his fingers slide away from the stoic face and stood back, watching how Ruddiger pressed his snout against Varian and laid down. He turned away to get changed.

While taking off his shirt he flinched as it pulled away from dried blood. He eyed the cut on his left arm for a moment, confused by the cut it had. It looked quite bad with parts of it ripped open by the carless removal from the shirt.

“Right,” he said in a whisper. That Minderbeast had swiped at him. It had hurt back then, but his sheer severeness of the situation had him completely forgotten about it. He guessed he’d better clean it.

He sat down and cleaned the wound with the remaining clean rags. Hugo grabbed one of the extra rolls of bandages and one of the gauzes, readying it on his lap. He grabbed some of the sterilization fluid and dapped carefully on his wound, he sucked in air through his teeth at the stinging. He continued to dress it with a lightly shaky hand.

When he finished he got up and undressed further. He caught a glimpse in the mirror of himself and felt oddly distant to the reflection he saw. He grimaced at himself, feeling the bitterness towards himself rise again. He broke away from his reflection and stepped into his bed. He allowed himself one last glance at Varian who seemed to sleep peacefully, before laying his head down and fall into a deep and troubled sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is once again prove read by Itsashthetic! He’s an awesome human being! <3  
> I hope to actually update within the coming three weeks (unlike this time) and I can’t wait for you guys to see where this is going! ^^


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is this? A quick upload!? Feck yeah!!!  
> Have some aftermath ya'll!

Varian’s heart was racing as he heard the growl in his neck. He turned around just in time to see the attack coming before it landed a second later. It hurt so much, it was like his body was on fire. But right that instance, Hugo was beside him, reaching out. Varian tried to grab him, but his hand phased right through Hugo’s and he could see Hugo’s face of horror.

The beast grabbed him, pulled him in. Varian tried to fight it but his hands couldn’t touch anything. Wherever he tried to push the beast away his hands went straight trough. The beast growled, the pink acid on its body glowing angrily in the dimly lit hole.

Right, he had hurt it first. The beast was still being eaten by the acid.

But the unusual pity he felt for the animal was gone in a flash as it suddenly attacked him. It was so quick. It dashed forward, mouth open and ready to bite his neck or face off. Varian wasn’t sure where he would have been bitten because he awoke with a start at that moment.

He gasped loudly, shooting up in a sitting position, body buzzing from adrenalin. Ruddiger had given a loud squeal as he was launched from Varian’s chest to his lap.

“Ruddiger!” Varian quickly picked up the raccoon, checking if he was alright. He seemed a bit dazed, but fine all together.

Varian sighed and placed the animal on his left arm to pet him with his right, the warm fur brushing softly against his chest. “Sorry buddy,” he whispered, eyes landing on the sleeping form of Hugo. “Did I startle you?”

Ruddiger simply chittered from Varian’s arm, licking happily at his left arm in pleasure. Varian couldn’t quite hold in a soft giggle at the tickling sensation the tongue gave on his skin. He looked down and was surprised when his eyes found his right arm, resting on Ruddiger’s back. It suddenly came back to him that his arm had been badly torn by that beast. It hadn’t just been a dream, it had really happened.. Right?

He looked past the bed’s headboard to see remainders of blood stained bandages on the floor. Yeah, it did happen. He shivered at the memory of his skin tearing. There was no way his mind could create such a vivid memory of something so specific. He had many wounds throughout his life, many odd ones too but he cannot recall a feeling anywhere near the horrific feeling of those teeth ripping through his skin and tearing at it.

His body gave another shudder and he put Ruddiger down. The raccoon was quick to find his place back into Varian’s lap. Varian was pretty sure he would get those nightmares again if he would just lay back down and sleep again. His eyes wandered to Hugo. A nervous kind of feeling tightened around his heart. It quickened at the thought of him stepping into Hugo’s bed and snuggle against him. Varian quickly hid his face at the thought of Hugo’s warm body pressed against his. His face felt hot and he was pretty sure his cheeks were bright red by now. He peeked another glace through his fingers towards Hugo. He wouldn’t mind, right?

No! He had told Hugo to be patient with him. What would he think if he woke up with Varian in his arms?! Varian found himself unable to pull his gaze away from Hugo. He just really wanted that safe feeling of Hugo near him. That strange safe feeling that had accumulated in the past two years. The kind of safety he had never felt with anyone before.

He bit his bottom lip. He found himself repeating the question; he wouldn’t mind, right?

“Come on, Ruddiger.” He softly pushed the raccoon from his lap and got up. Ruddiger watched him curiously from the bed as Varian made his way over to Hugo’s bed. He stared for a moment, one hand holding tight onto his other arm. Hugo would understand, right? He would understand that Varian had felt very distressed after what happened out there. He wouldn’t mind, right? If he just-

He picked up the blanket and carefully got into the bed. If it hadn’t been for Hugo laying on his side, facing the wall Varian wouldn’t even have fit in the bed. He pulled the blanket up and snuggled against Hugo’s back. He felt his heart pick up its pace but at the same time his mind calm at the warmth of Hugo’s back.

He let his eyes fall close and focused his mind on the steady breathing of the older man. He was about to fall asleep when a sudden deep breath broke the steady rhythm. He felt the other shift against his body and a groggy voice sounded.

“Varian?”

Varian hummed in confirmation, eyes still closed, but he could feel his cheeks heat up once more.

“What are you doing?” Hugo started to move and Varian gave him space to do so. Their eyes met in the darkness of the room. Hugo seemed worried at first but a smile graced his lips very quickly. “I thought you wanted to take it slow.” he said teasingly.

Varian buried his face into Hugo’s chest, now certain his face was as red as it could get. He expected Hugo to laugh, or tease him more, or maybe even flirt again. But Hugo proved him completely wrong when a warm arm wrapped around him and pulled him closer.

“You had a nightmare too, huh?”

Varian was almost taken aback by the amount of relief he felt when Hugo broke all those expectations. His words had been warm and welcome, not teasing. Somehow he felt safer than he had ever before, here in Hugo’s arms, his chest pressed against his forehead. Even though Hugo just admitted on having a nightmare as well, it still felt like no one could do anything to him now that Hugo held him. It felt like he was being protected from the tempest by the ever unmovable shore. He felt at home.

“Thanks,” he muttered before the heaviness of sleep could pull him under once more.

->\/<-

Varian blinked against the bright light coming from the window. He had woken up from a heaviness on his head, only to find out Ruddiger had found the only spot left in the far too small bed to hold two, let alone three, which was the little space above Varian’s head, causing the raccoon to lean on the top of his head.

Varian gave his little friend a small scratch behind its ear, waking the animal up from his slumber. Ruddiger chittered happily and climbed down over Varian’s face.

“Hey!” Varian protested as the scratchy little paws walked straight over his face before he fidgeted himself between Varian and Hugo. Hugo woke up as well and looked down to see Ruddiger squirming to find his way between them.

Hugo gave a small laugh as he moved over a bit, his back against the cold wall, to give room to the raccoon. It reminded him of a little child between the arms of their parents for a moment. He looked up to see Varian looking down at the raccoon as well.

“So, does this makes us the parents of Ruddiger?” he asked and Varian only now noticed fully that Hugo had woken up. He gave a yelp of surprise and backed away from Hugo, to make distance, only to fall right out of the bed. Another yelp followed as he did so and a loud thud.

“Wow.” Hugo got up quickly and Ruddiger chittered loudly in protest as he jumped off the bed to the empty one. “Hey, you okay?” he looked over the side of the bed to see Varian lying flat on the floor, staring at the ceiling .

Varian nodded before getting up from the floor. He gave a loud moan as he stretched his back and arms. He sat down next to Hugo on the bed. “Sorry for waking you up.”

“Nah, I’m hungry. I would’ve woken up regardless from Ruddiger cockblocking us,” Hugo said, wiggling his eyebrows at Varian.

Varian turned beet red at this. “Cock-” he stumbled over his words, embracement too heavy on his mind. “B-block?”

Hugo barked a laugh and scooched closer pulling the far too flustered Varian into a hug. “Morning.” he said into Varian’s hair.

Varian’s racing heart came to a rest in this gesture. “Morning.” he answered back.

A silence fell over them, an oddly comfortable and serene one. Varian simply leaned into the hug and let the soft thumping of Hugo’s heart sooth him. It simply felt right.

A knock on the door woke him up from the little moment they were having and he shot up and out of Hugo’s hold. “Y-yes?”

He quickly grabbed a shirt and pulled it over his head.

“Are you two awake?” Nuru’s voice sounded through the door.

Varian pulled a pair of pants over his butt and opened the door just a bit to see Nuru. She gasped at the sight of Varian standing by the door. “Varian!”

“Good morning.” Varian smiled at her.

She pushed the door open to have a look at Varian. She grabbed his right arm and studied it. “It healed, it really did!”

“Your pants are on backwards,” Hugo said, letting his head come to rest on top of Varian’s.

“Hugo be careful with him,” Nuru complained, seeing how Hugo leaned on Varian. “He was dying yesterday.”

“And he’s fine today,” Hugo said in a sing song voice, poking at Varian who frowned in annoyance. “Aren’t we, little boy?” he said in a voice people would use for small children.

Varian sighed and moved away from the door and Hugo. He half expected Hugo to follow him, to invade his personal space more but he did not. Instead he leaned into the doorway, seemingly unfazed by the fact he was simply in his boxers and blocked Nuru’s way in.

“He’s fine, Nuru. His arm was already healed in the night,” he said but Nuru’s eyes still followed Varian around. “We’ll join you and Yong downstairs for breakfast in a bit, okay?”

Varian could see her worries weren’t quite settled completely but she moved away from the door anyways. “Okay, see you in a bit.”

Hugo closed the door and Varian started to take off his pants. He wiggled back into them, this time right side right. Once they were on he felt Hugo press into him from behind, arms wrapping around him, the warmth of his skin going right through his thin undershirt.

“Hey.” The voice sounded from behind him, the arms tightening ever so slightly around his waist.

Varian felt lost for a moment, all the teasing and then flirting and then teasing again left him feeling dizzy. He didn’t quite know how to behave and honestly he wasn’t sure if it wasn’t all flirting or simply all teasing.

“Hey,” he decided to answer.

“Sooo,” Hugo stretched the word, almost seeming to hope for Varian to fill it in. When he didn’t he continued. “Wanna talk about that _thing_ yet?”

Varian stiffened in Hugo’s hug. “W-what?” He looked around to meet green eyes. He searched the green for a moment. Was he teasing? Was he serious? Was this flirting? “It’s been one day.” He decided to say.

“Yeah but it was a day in which I thought I was going to lose you at the end of it,” Hugo said. “It put things in perspective. I want to be with you, Varian.”

Varian laid his arms on top of Hugo’s returning the hug the only way he truly could in this pose and leaned back into the older man’s hold. He wanted to answer with a “I want to be with you too.” But he didn’t. because there was a but lingering at the end of that sentence. A but that weighed too heavy in his heart. A but that could be a game changer and he didn’t feel ready to tip his hand completely, not quite yet.

“Hugo, I asked you to be pat-”

“Patient,” Hugo said the word at the same time as Varian did, who stopped mid-way. There was a moment he thought Hugo would be angry or would pull away in frustration. But he didn’t. His voice had been calm and warm. “Yeah, you did. I- ehhh,” Hugo broke eye contact for a moment and Varian thought he could see the slightest tinge of red on his cheeks. “I just wanted to check, I guess.” There was a short silence before he added. “Sorry.”

Varian smiled at Hugo and repeated the words Hugo had said him yesterday. “Don’t apologize,” he said, one hand leaving Hugo’s arm to cup Hugo’s cheek. He leaned in to give a small peck on Hugo’s cheek. “I understand.”

Hugo smiled back and leaned his head into the crook of Varian’s neck. Varian gave a small sigh of contentment and leaned into the hug more.

“What happened to your arm, by the way?” Varian asked after a while, when he found his thumb rubbing at the edge of the bandages.

“Oh, it was just a cut, nothing too bad,” Hugo said. “That Minderbeast had a swipe at me.”

“Oh, okay. If you’re sure.”

Hugo nodded and they both lapsed back into a comfortable silence.

They stayed like that for a bit until Varian realized that Hugo had told Nuru to wait with Yong downstairs. “Hugo we should get ready,” he said and the taller man let him go. “They’re probably waiting on us already.’’

Hugo seemed to linger for a moment near Varian as if he wanted to say or do something and Varian paused his rummaging through his belongings to look at Hugo. At this Hugo promptly moved away and started dressing up.

Varian’s eyes remained on Hugo for a moment longer before he decided that Hugo was probably still sleepy and picked up his shirt from yesterday. He looked at its right sleeve and sighed. That was ripped beyond prepare. The blood wouldn’t be too much of a problem to get out. He could maybe remove both sleeves and make it a short sleeved shirt, but for now he needed something warmer. He put the shirt aside and went through his tops. Calling it sunny out would be the wrong wording, since the sun didn’t quite penetrate the leaves above the city, leaving the world to be in a fresh green light. He felt like it would still be a warmer day, rather than cold. So he took out a light three quartered sleeved shirt and a green vest for over it. He put on the shirt and the buttoned up his vest. He looked down at the dark blue pants and decided to tug it under his vest and belt it off.

When he finished he got up to see Hugo had gone for something far more loose fitted. Varian couldn’t help but notice how it was showing Hugo’s chest a bit and couldn’t be mad at it. It looked good. Hugo was a very handsome man to look at after all.

Hugo gave him a smirk that told Varian that he wanted something. He wasn’t quite sure what kind of reaction or what he wanted, so he did whatever he always did when Hugo didn’t make sense, ignore it and just continue with his life. He could hear Hugo huff his hair out of his face and follow him. Yeah, he had definitely missed something.

The two made their way to the first floor of the inn and found Yong and Nuru already seated on a table for four, an assortment of breads and spreads ready to be consumed. Yong was drinking something Varian had guessed was a variant of milk and Nuru was staring off in the distance. She was the first to spot the duo.

“Ah! Here!” She waved them over. “You two took your sweet time, didn’t you?” she huffed.

“Ahaha,” Varian scratched the back of his head, the memory of Hugo pressing into him coming to the surface immediately. “Sorry about that.”

“So bread it is, huh,” Hugo said, letting himself drop into one of the free chairs, happy to be sitting across of Varian. “Nice,” he grabbed one of the loafs.

Yong was seated next to Varian and was suspiciously quiet when he said a “Good morning,” to the two new arrivals. 

“Good morning,” Varian smiled at him, but the smile fell away when he saw the tremble in Yong’s lower lip. “Yong?”

Tears suddenly welled up in Yong’s eyes, his hands balling into fists as he was clearly trying to keep the tears back. The boy suddenly shot into Varian’s arms, face digging into his chest.

“I thought you were dying,” he wailed, tears streaming down his face. “And it would have been my fault!”

“Y-Yong?” Varian shifted a bit under the boy so that he was sitting more comfortably in Varian’s lap. “What makes you say that? I’m fine! And of course it’s not your fault.”

“But I blinded it,” he said between sobs. “That made it attack you more.”

Varian realized what Yong was saying and pulled the boy into a tighter hug. “Yong, you were trying to save me. You didn’t know it would end up like this. And I’m fine now, I didn’t die.”

Yong was still crying and both Nuru and Hugo sat quietly as they watched Varian comfort Yong. Varian rubbed small circles on Yong’s back as he let the boy cry. Of course Yong had been scared. He was much younger than all of them and this was probably his first experience with death, or at least such a near miss with death.

Didn’t he went on a revenge fueled rage after he lost his father? Going even so far as to try and kill the queen and princess. Having Yong cry it out in his lap sounded like a very good way to go about this to him.

After a while the boy seemed to have calmed down and looked up at Varian. “I-I’m so s-sorry Varian.”

Varian brushed his fingers through Yong’s hair. “Don’t be,” he moved his fingers down and cupped Yong’s cheek. “Thank you for helping me.”

Yong seemed surprised at first but then turned a little flustered. “I- I tried my best,” he said, scratching the back of his head.

“Now come, let’s eat.” Varian said and Yong nodded vigorously before getting off Varian’s lap and back onto his own chair.

“Yeah,” Hugo agreed. “I’m starving!”

->\/<-

Hugo watched Varian as he sat on one of the stone benches under the main tree. He was in the proses of sorting the loot that they had brought along, while Varian was busy trying to sell pieces to people on the road. Ruddiger was on his shoulder and gained him a lot of attention. Raccoons were a rare animal in this part of the world and seeing one tame and clean must be a treat for most.

A lot of kids had gathered as well, wanting to pet Ruddiger. Hugo smiled as Varian had been easily distracted from his actual task and was now playing with Ruddiger and the children. Ruddiger did some tricks in exchange for apples the kids brought and got cheers and claps when he did them.

Ruddiger grew weary of the copious amount of attention soon enough and Varian told the children to go on with their day and let the pet raccoon climb up his shoulder to rest. Hugo watched as Varian came walking back and flopped down on the stone bench besides him.

“You’re far better at this,” Varian laughed. “People just want to see Ruddiger, not what I’m selling.”

Hugo laughed as well. “You must be an interesting sight to see indeed,” he said and turned the few bags he brought along towards Varian. “We can go market style with it?”

“Aren’t there shops around buying up loot?” Varian asked.

“Maybe,” Hugo hummed. “But I’m afraid only half this stuff is applicable for such shops. Most is just second hand gear.”

Varian sighed and rummaged a little through the items. They weren’t necessarily bad items, but they were far too common. Most people either own these things or would invest into new items for travels. They kept a few of the items themselves, ropes and such were always handy to have.

Varian sighed again in annoyance. “I’m bored!”

“I know how we could spice things up,” Hugo said, wiggling his eyebrows at Varian. “But that probably won’t give us any costumers.”

“What are you talking about?” Varian asked. “Aren’t we here to get rid of these items?”

Hugo sighed and stared with irritation at Varian who seemed lost and confused. “I’m flirting, Varian.”

“Oh,” Varian turned away, face flushing slightly. “I see.”

“Have you even noticed how I dressed today?” Hugo asked.

Varian looked back, eyeing the lose fitting shirt, unbuttoned at the top. “Yeah, it looks good on you,” Varian smiled.

Hugo gave Varian a disappointed look before sighing and turning back to the loot. “Never mind!”

“Hugo,” Varian picked up his hand from one of the bags and pulled it towards himself. “What’s wrong?”

Hugo grimaced. “It’s just that I hoped this would do something with you.”

Varian scooched a bit closed. “Then please explain to me, how should I react on your clothes. Because I don’t understand.”

“It doesn’t count if I tell you to do it,” Hugo muttered. “That defeats the whole purpose.”

“Oh.” Hugo hated how small Varian sounded in that moment. He looked up just in time to see the lingering sadness in Varian’s eyes disappear. “Well, ehh. Let’s… Let’s focus on getting rid of this stuff!” Varian forced cheerfulness back into his voice, clasping his hands together in fake delight.

Hugo felt the need to linger on the topic a bit longer, but at the same time he hated how Varian had looked in that moment. They would figure this out, just not now. They had a job to do. The sooner they had gotten rid of the extra items the quicker they could get that potion and go back to the inn to replicate it.

Varian got off the bench and laid out all the items. Hugo got up too to make more room and helped Varian get all the items out. Varian ordered them by usage and looked at their handy work.

“This will do,” he said. “Since you’re the smooth talker I’d say; go get them tiger!” he pushed Hugo into the streets.

Hugo didn’t complain. He knew it was true. Varian was too honest and too kind to push people into buying things. He’d just had to get it over with. So he threw all his charms and all his con man knowhow into the mix and started stopping people walking by.

It didn’t take him too long to sell almost all the items. Varian had flinched here and there at the blatant lies he had strung to make items look a bit more valuable than they truly were. Not before long they had a decent amount of money and barely any items left.

“That went pretty well,” Varian said, eying the half burned candles, an old looking mirror and some cutlery. They also had some old bags that didn’t look like they would hold out much longer than a year max. “See if we can get rid of this for a copper piece or two?”

Hugo shrugged his head. “Nah, leave it be. We got some decent coin from this loot and we’re about to meet the merchant. He could be here any minute.”

Varian shrugged and gather the remaining items into the bags that had remained and placed it to the side of the road for anyone to take. He sat back down besides Hugo who was petting Ruddiger.

“You think we’ll be able to remake the potion before midday?” Varian asked. They had to leave not long after midday would they want to reach the next town before nightfall.

“Eeeh,” Hugo stretched. “I think we might not,” he answered. “But it doesn’t matter right? We can continue tonight when we’re in the next town over.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Varian shrugged. “But you know how I get with these kind of projects.”

Hugo laughed. Oh boy, did he know how Varian could get. If something had sparked his interest there was almost no stopping him. This would be quite the test of self-discipline for Varian if they didn’t finish it in time.

“I do,” Hugo said. He wanted to tell Varian that he was kind of into it but was stopped when he saw the merchant walking in their direction.

“Oh, here sir!” Varian waved him over.

The man hurried over, seemingly overjoyed to see them. “You got it?!” he asked, panting from the small sprint. “Where is it?!”

“Here,” Hugo pulled it away from their own belongings and handed it over. The man beamed at the sight of his bag and quickly took it out of Hugo’s hands.

“Say,” Varian started. “I wondered… why pay so much for your merchant bag? Isn’t it a bit much for your belongings?”

“Well, there are two reasons,” the merchant said as he put the back down and started rummaging through it. “One, if I paid less I’d have to wait longer for someone willing to do this task and the beasts might destroy it before it could be returned to me,” he pulled out a thick fabric rolled up from it. “But the second and most important reason,” he unrolled the fabric and his eyes sparked at what he saw. “Is this. The only painting I have from my late wife.”

Hugo saw Varian gasp and cover his mouth. “The only one?” he asked. “Can I see?”

“Yes, of course,” Varian stepped to the man’s side to see the thick fabric with an oil painted face on it. “She was called Grace.”

“She’s beautiful,” Varian said, clearly eying the painting.

“She was, wasn’t she?” The man said dreamingly. “I know most people tell me to move on and find a new partner, but I simply can’t.”

“You must do whatever feels good to you,” Varian said, placing a comforting hand on the man’s shoulder. “Having a partner is not the only goal in life.”

The man smiled at Varian. “Thank you, my boy,” he carefully started rolling up the canvas. “It is refreshing to hear.”

Varian gave one of his bright smiles, the kind that went straight to Hugo’s heart. It was like the sun shone from his eyes and made him feel like there was only happiness in the world. But the fact that the smile was not directed at him but a stranger made something ugly rear up in Hugo’s chest. He watched how Varian lapsed into small talk with the man while he was handed the bag of gold. Varian was smiling so much and being so kind.

Hugo balled his fists and snatched the gold from Varian’s hands who gasped at the sudden move. “Let me count it,” Hugo grunted in irritation.

Varian looked taken aback a bit but continued talking to the merchant anyways. Hugo had never counted gold pieces this fast or sloppy before. He just wanted Varian to stop talking to this man.

86, 87, 88, 89. Varian’s laughter filled the air and Hugo’s head snapped up. Jealousy rising up in him. He had to focus, get this counting done! 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95. The man placed a hand on Varian’s shoulder as he laughed. Varian had been saying something funny apparently. But he hated how much he couldn’t stand the fact that man was touching Varian. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100!

“Let’s go, Stripes!” With his free hand Hugo grabbed Varian by his wrist who gave a small yelp in surprise.

“I- oh, what?” He bounced a bit as he was pulled away from the merchant like he was moving too fast. “Oh, uhm, bye!” He waved at the man which only caused Hugo to pull harder at Varian’s wrist.

“Ouch!” Varian hissed. “Hey, Hugo!”

“Don’t talk with him,” Hugo kept on pulling, past people and into an alleyway that would lead to the outer rings of the town. He simply needed to get Varian away from that man.

“Hugo? What’s wrong?” Varian asked, pulling at Hugo’s hand clamped around his wrist. “Stop! Stop pulling me!”

Hugo’s hand tightened more and Varian now grit his teeth and dug his nails mercilessly into Hugo’s hand.

“Ah!” Hugo let go at the pain shooting through his hand. He whipped around, afraid for only a second that Varian had run off, only to see Varian cradle his wrist. Oh no! He had hurt Varian. He hadn’t meant to pull that hard or hold him that tight. “Oh, I’m so sorry Varian.”

“What was that about?” Varian sounded angry and suspicious.

That question made him realize what he had done. He had become jealous of Varian and dragged him off like he was his property.

“You were flirting with that guy!” He couldn’t help but get defensive with the way Varian was looking at him.

“F-flirting!?” Varian asked, clearly thinking what he had said was ludicrous. “What are you talking about!?”

“You were flirting with that man,” Hugo pointed at Varian’s chest, anger rising in him at the memory of Varian smiling at the man with his special kind of smile. “You were small talking with him, and smiling, and laughing and touching him!”

“That isn’t-” Varian seemed to stumble over his words, anger now clear in his face too. “That’s not flirting! I was just being nice!”

“Yeah, being nice to a single man.” Hugo shouted back. Was Varian really this oblivious?

“A widower that wasn’t over his wife’s death yet,” Varian rose his arms into the air with frustration. “You’re being ridiculous!”

That made Hugo halter. Oh, right. The man had said he wasn’t looking. He even commented on how good it was to hear someone say that that was fine. There had been obvious cues that the man had not been seeking a partner and he had just forgotten about them completely.

At this realization his face turned beat red, hiding his face into the palms of his hands. “Oh stupid, stupid!” How could jealousy have caused him to be so blind for the real situation. Of course Varian hadn’t been flirting. He wasn’t even sure Varian even truly knew what flirting was.

He looked up to see Varian no longer looking angry and much closer to him, worry in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry Varian,” he said, grabbing the arm where he had pulled on to see bruises starting to blossom on his wrist. “I-I just got- got jealous.”

Varian stepped in closer. “That’s alright, it can happen,” he said, his finger cupping Hugo’s cheek. Hugo looked up to see a pair of wonderfully blue eyes looking down up at him with loving care. “Just know, I’m not flirting with anyone.”

Hugo smiled, laughing to himself when he couldn’t help but wonder if that was because of incapability or lack of wanting to. He decided it didn’t matter in this moment and let go of Varian’s hand. “I should have known, shouldn’t I?”

Varian gave Hugo one of his wonderful smiles. One that warned Varian would say something that might not be too nice to hear but was meant it the right way. “Yeah, you should have, dummy.”

“Now, let finally get that potion!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for sticking around and commenting on this story! It helps a lot and I really love seeing all your comments! <3 Sorry if I'm a bit slow in reacting sometimes... just... life I guess? >///<   
> Anyways, please let me know what you thought of this chapter! 
> 
> ~On wards we write!~  
> Till the next chapter! <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy! Did a whole lot happen >///< Sadly I’ve lost one my beta readers and the other one was far too buzzy to help out, so yeah… it took a while longer than I hoped it would. but I got a new one ^^’ I’m so sorry for the wait! I’ll try to upload the next chapter as quick as I can as a thank you for the wait! So without further ado, chapter 6!

The potion store still looked as bright and as much of an eyesore as it did yesterday. The paints still glowed vividly even during the morning hours, the world cast in bright green light. Ruddiger crawled into Varian’s backpack, not feeling at ease in the shop.

Hugo pushed the thick curtains away. They found the shop owner in the store this time, restocking some bottles on his already pretty full looking shelves.

“Welcome!” the man sounded cheerful as he turned around to see his new costumers. “Ah, you two.” The man stepped down from the ladder. “Back for more, I see.”

Varian saw Hugo frown and realized that it was odd the man knew they had returned for more of the same potion. He hadn’t heard their discussion on buying two. So what made him say that?

“You believe it now, boy?” he asked Hugo.

Hugo’s eyes narrowed even more in distrust. “How did you know we used it?”

The shop owner’s eyes glided from Hugo to Varian, and it felt like the purple looking eyes peered right through him. Varian had wondered last time if the man’s eyes looked purple because of the odd lighting in the shop, but now he thought they might actually be purple.

“You’ve been saved by my potion,” the man answered. “I can see it has healed your head but mostly your arm,” he paused for a moment. “Bitten by a minderbeast?”

Varian instinctively grabbed his previously injured arm, pulling it close to his chest. “H-how did you know?”

Hugo took a step closer to the shop owner and placed himself between the shopkeeper and Varian. “Are you spying on us?”

The shop owner barked a laugh. “Oh heavens, no!” he said and moved back to stand behind his counter. “I have no time for such trivial things. Nor a need for it.” The purple eyes found Varian again and sparkled with interest. “I can see when the magic of my potion has effected someone for up to twenty-four hours.”

“Magic?” Varian asked. “These potions are magical?”

“Well yes, of course,” the man laughed in amusement. “You don’t think science has come that far yet, do you?”

At this, Varian felt his cheeks light up. “I- ehhh.”

“So, you say those healing potions are powered by magic and not their ingredients?” Hugo asked, back into interrogation mode.

“I never said that. But why do you ask? You know it works now. That’s all that matters, right?” he placed a bottle holding a familiar light pink fluid. “That’ll be fifty more gold for one.”

Varian looked at Hugo, who looked back at him. This ruined their plans. They couldn’t perform magic, let alone make potions with it. So all their efforts had been useless.

Varian wasn’t sure why but the disappointment felt heavy on his heart. He knew the chance of him being able to recreate the potion had been slim from the start, but downright impossible? He hadn’t expected that.

Hugo seemed to pick up on Varian’s mood and turned back to the man. “Then what is the potion without the magic?”

At this, the shop owner frowned. “What exactly do you want to know?”

“Hugo, it’s alright,” Varian placed a hand on Hugo’s arm. “We both enjoy the art of potion making a lot. We had actually hoped to buy the potion and try recreating it ourselves. But well, that won’t work now, will it? Neither of us can perform magic.”

Varian expected the man to be mad, or offended by the plan they’d had to try and replicate the potion. But instead, he pulled an eyebrow up in confusion. He simply stared at Varian as if expecting Varian to say more but then frowned.

“You don’t know, do you?” he asked out of the blue.

Varian found Hugo’s eyes for a moment, seeing he was just as lost by those words as Varian was. He looked back to the shop owner. “Sorry?”

The man laughed, sounding a bit giddy. “Oh, that’s quite rare.”

Varian looked back to Hugo once more, finding his own confusion reflecting off of him. “What are you talking about?”

The man stepped away from the counter and walked to the back, where another heavy curtain, this one deep navy blue, hung. He beckoned the duo. “Let's step into the back for a moment.”

Varian shot Hugo yet another look of worry, but this time he saw curiosity in Hugo’s eyes. Hugo moved a bit closer to Varian and whispered into his ear. “I’ve got my sleeping bombs on me, no worries.”

Varian took a deep breath. This was ridiculous! The man hadn’t shown any malice towards them. There was no need to worry, right? Besides, he was rather curious about what the shopkeeper had meant.

They followed the shop owner into the back and found a workplace. In the middle of it was a sprawling chemistry setup, bubbling with something colored deep purple. Varian wowed softly at the sight of all the different chemistry sets and other tools for brewing potions. There were so many, and they all looked very high quality.

The man smirked at Varian, who awed at his workspace. “My name is Girda, by the way.” The man introduced himself a bit sheepishly.

“Oh, uhm, my name is Varian,” Varian started. He had been very distracted by all the ingredients and processes underway. “And this is Hugo.” He gestured to Hugo, who was staring at one of the chemistry sets bubbling in the corner.

Girda moved his hood back, and Varian gasped as he saw a pair of long pointy ears appear from underneath. Varian had heard about elves before from his father, but he had always thought they were simply myths.

Girda’s hair was long, silky, and silver, and here in the brighter light Varian could clearly see his eyes were indeed purple colored. His long ears had caused the hood to stand very wide, making his head seem wider than it actually was. His face was very slim and angular. Now that Varian had a good look at the man, he could clearly see that he didn’t seem fully human after all.

“Y-you’re an e-elf?” Varian stuttered, eyes wide at the man.

The man simply smiled. “Spot on!”

Varian looked at Hugo, finding him trying to hide how surprised and impressed he was. “But what were you trying to say back in the store?” Varian asked.

“Well, it looks like you don’t seem to know that you possess magic inside of you.”

“Magic?” Varian stepped back slightly. “No, I don’t have any magic. I’m not like Princess Rapunzel or like you.”

Girda pulled one of his eyebrows up. “Really? You think you don’t have magic inside you? Then do tell me, what do you think that blue is in your hair?”

At this, Varian covered his hair, like it would stop being there if he hid it. Something scary stirred up inside of Varian. His father had never answered him when he asked why his hair had a blue stripe in it. Somewhere along the line, he had thought it might have been a chemistry accident. But it never grew out, it was always there. At some point in his life, he stopped seeing the blue, stopped noticing how no one around him had such colors in their hair. People never seemed to ask, so neither did he.

“I see you have no answer,” Girda said. “You have magic inside you. It’s not through your family or race. It’s a gifted power. One that seems to be dormant and weak, but is definitely there.”

“Dormant? So he could activate it? Is that how it works?” Hugo asked, only able to draw comparisons to machines in his mind.

“In a way, yes,” Girda answered. “I could help you get in contact with the source inside you, if you wish.”

Varian wrung his hands. Contact the powers inside him? It all sounded so foreign to him, like it was make-believe. “I- I guess?”

The shop owner stepped closer to Varian and placed his index finger on the roots of his blue hair, touching his scalp firmly.

It was like a great wave crashing over him, a feeling of snapping out of consciousness. He was no longer in the shop, no, he was back in Corona. He was back in Old Corona to be precise. It was the middle of the night, and the moon was full and gigantic as it hung low in the pale blue sky.

The sound of the black rocks growing filled his ears and he turned around to see new spikes coming from the ground. Places where they hadn’t been before. These weren’t old ones; they were new ones. And it scared him a lot.

 _Varian._ He could hear Rapunzel’s voice. _Varian, what are you doing?_ She sounded shocked, lost, and betrayed. He looked around, trying to find where she was.

 _Varian, wait!_ His father this time. He turned around sharply again, as if he could be fast enough to catch a glimpse of his father.

 _What did you do, Varian?_ The queen this time. _I trusted you, Varian._ Cassandra’s voice sounded now. _That’s enough, Varian._ Rapunzel again. _What has become of you, Varian?_ Eugene sounded so disappointed.

He looked around, franticly trying to find the source of the voices. If he could just find them, explain to them, tell them that he was no longer that angry fifteen year old. That he had changed. If he could just tell them. But the voices were coming faster and faster and started to overlap. Every voice calling out his name, but none in a positive way.

 _Let her go, Varian!_ The king. _What did I ever do to you, Varian!?_ Rapunzel once more. _You’re not the kid we knew, Varian._ Cassandra again.

But now he started to hear other things, the sound of the amber growing. The sound of his own voice.

_I betrayed you, Princess._

Where was the amber? Where was his father? He needed to stop it! He could hear it! Maybe this time he was in time to save his dad!

_You promised, Princess._

_They… Will… Pay._

More rocks shot out of the ground around him.

_Join us, Varian. Help New Saporia, and you’ll have a chance at a new life._

_Varian, you’re hurting her!_

_They will hear me!_

_Make them pay, Varian._

_Let her go, Varian!_

_I trusted you, Varian!_

Varian couldn’t breathe. His chest was closing up, his throat growing tight. More and more black spikes grew around him, and it felt like the moon was leaning down on him with its gravity, growing larger and larger in size. The voices were barely recognizable as they rang in unison. It was like the sound was drilling through his ears like a physical force.

_Varian! You’re a monster_ _, Varian! Varian! Varian? Variaaaan! Varian! What did you do, Varian? How could you, Varian? Everyone betrayed me! Varian! Varian! You’re a monster, Varian! Varian! You’re the bad guy, Varian. Varian! You made me do this! Varian. Varian! Varian! Varian. VARIAN! VARIAN! You did this! Varian! VARIAN!_

“Varian!”

It all snapped away from him in an instant. His knees gave out, and a pair of warm arms caught him before he could hit the ground.

“What did you do to him!?”

His ears were still ringing from all the voices and all the noises of the black rocks and amber. He felt dizzy like he had been holding his breath for far too long. His mind swayed and reeled as he tried to figure out where he was and what had happened.

“I was simply trying to create a connection between him and his magic,” a voice sounded from above. “I’ve never seen someone react like this before.”

“He was clearly in pain! Why didn’t you stop!?” this voice sounded close, he could feel it rumble against the side of his face.

“I tried,” the other voice said.

Varian tried to ask what was going on, tried to push words from his lips, but instead, he mumbled nonsensically. He only noticed now that his face was wet. Had he been crying?

“Varian?” He flinched at his name. It almost felt like it would trigger the flood of voices again. “Are you with us again?”

Varian looked up, meeting familiar green. It seemed like the sight of Hugo set his world right again. It confirmed that he was back in the here and now. Hugo didn’t know about his past. Hugo was not one of the voices calling out in disappointment, or hate, or worst or all, pain.

“Yeah,” his voice was shaky at best, but he felt strong enough to move back from Hugo’s chest and rub at his face, feeling how wet it was. “What happened?”

“God, you’re so pale!” Hugo said, face pulled taught in worry.

“It seems like there is a mental block holding you away from your magical potential,” the man explained. “I was not able to reconnect you with it. Instead, it seems I triggered something inside of you.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Varian rubbed both his temples with his hands. It took him a moment to understand what had just happened. He’d been plummeted so suddenly into his worst nightmare. “What does my magic have to do with what I saw?”

Varian looked up to see Girda sporting a pitying look. “It, ehh,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck. “It seems you fear the source of your magic.”

The feeling of dread started to set in Varian’s stomach. He was almost too scared to ask. “What is the source of my magic?”

“The moon.”

The answer was short but devastating all the same. It felt like Varian’s heart stopped for a moment, and he grabbed onto Hugo to steady himself.

“The moon?” Hugo asked. “What’s wrong with the moon?”

Girda turned to one of the shelves brimming with books. He looked for a moment before taking a black-bound book. The leather covering it was thick, and Varian expected it to be stiff, but when he saw Girda open it, he noticed how supple it was. It must have been age that turned this book’s cover soft. Girda thumbed through a few pages before searching slower. He seemed to find what he was looking for and started to read.

“Once upon a time, a drop of sunlight and a drop of moonlight fell from the heavens. The Sundrop fell unto a flower, creating a flower with the ability to heal. The Moondrop formed into a seductive opal with the power to build and destroy,” he stopped reading “The people of Corona and Umbra, now known as the Dark Kingdom, know these stories very well. Corona had the Sundrop Flower and, Umbra had the Moon Opal. One thrived. One was destroyed. All the Seven Kingdoms know how the Sundrop and Moon Opal clashed before coming together. Corona was in the crossfire of all this. The Moon Opal had destroyed a lot with its unbreakable rocks,” Grida’s eyes looked up from the leather-bound book to connect his eyes with Varian. “What has the moon done to you specifically?”

Varian had to swallow something big away from his throat, finding breathing suddenly very exhausting. “It’s ehhh, not just what it did to me…” He didn’t dare look towards Hugo, his shame too great. “It’s more what it caused me to become.”

Girda was quiet for a moment, and Varian was afraid either he or Hugo would start asking questions. “Forgiveness is hard to come by,” Girda said, eventually, his words cryptic. “But forgiving one’s self is even harder.”

Varian looked away. The shop owner had been spot on. It had taken him a long time to really believe he had been forgiven by the people of Corona, let alone the king, queen, and Rapunzel. But in the end, he found that even if he was convinced of the forgiveness given, he had never given it to himself. He despised what he had done; who he had become. He hated how easily his fear, desperation, and anger had turned into hatred and vengeance. And at the heart of it all rest the moon. The moon had caused the fear. Those rocks had taken so much away from him and pushed him to such extremes. To hear now that the moon’s power had been inside him, it left him torn on how to feel. He wanted to hate the fact that he might have been able to solve his problems after all. But it also made him feel like he had only failed more. Or maybe he had been the source of all his misery. Did he start everything? Was _everything_ his fault?

“Varian,” the voice of Girda pulled him out of his tunneling thoughts. He had kneeled down before Varian. “Your powers have never shown because of your fear of the Moon Opal. You carry only a fraction of its powers. Your power is far too little to have awakened by itself without any knowledge or a focus. Maybe now that both the Sundrop and Moon Opal have left this world, you can get through your past and guilt. Maybe you can see these celestial powers for what they truly are, without human interference. I don’t think that without this neutral mind you could ever reach awakening.”

“You mean…?”

“That you are not to blame for anything,” the man answered. “No more than you were before. I doubt you could ever summon the rocks or even use the incantations.”

“How do you know this much about the Moondrop?” Varian asked.

“When you’re reaching deep into six hundred years of life you tend to collect information. I like to keep an eye on powerful beings and things,” Girda answered.

Hugo had quietly placed himself closer behind Varian while he was talking with Girda, his right hand holding on to Varian’s, and rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of Varian’s hand. Varian pulled Hugo’s hand up to his chest, holding tight to it. “So, I won’t be able to use magic at all then?”

“Not at this moment, no,” Girda said. “But if you learn to accept yourself for who you truly are, forgive yourself for what you’ve been, and work on seeing the moon’s power for what it truly is, then, and only then, I think you’ll be able to take down that mental block. You might be able to do it yourself, but I’d be willing to help when you feel ready.”

“Wouldn’t that be too much of a burden for you?” Varian asked.

“Of course not,” the man smiled. “And when you do awaken your magic, I’d love to take you in as an apprentice.”

“A-apprentice?”

“You wanted to learn how to make that potion, right?” Girda asked. “I’ve been looking for an apprentice for a while, actually. You seem like a good person for the role.”

“But, but you don’t even know me?” Varian started to get flustered, the heat rising to his cheeks.

Girda laughed. “Let’s say I’ve become a good judge of character after all these years. I can see honest curiosity in your eyes. And from what I can gauge, a sharp mind.”

“Feel free to call it great,” Hugo added, only causing Varian to get more flustered.

“Hugo!” Varian pushed Hugo away, who just smirked smugly at Varian’s blushing face.

“Think about it,” Girda rose from the floor. “I’ll be here for a couple more years. You do have other things to attend to now, right?”

“Uhm yes,” Hugo got up before Varian could and helped him back to his feet. “We actually have a project to do at the castle before going to Bayangor. I also have some business in Corona to attend to. So it will take a while before I can be back.”

“I have plenty of time,” the man answered. “But I’ll give you something for the road,” the man rummaged around the room, grabbing a small satchel and filling it with a few potions and two books from the shelves. He handed the bag to Varian. “Let’s call it homework.”

Varian took the satchel, looking dumbfounded into it to see its content. “Y-you’re really serious about this?”

The man barked a laugh. “Yeah, of course. Since you might not be a great judge of character, I thought this might help you understand that I am indeed serious about taking you under my wing,” Girda said. “You can bring him along,” he looked at Hugo for a moment. “But I cannot teach him any more than the bases I use.”

Hugo just shrugged, acting like he didn’t care. Varian, though was very happy to hear that. Because he did hope to stay with Hugo. Being taken on as an apprentice was a big deal and would bring him closer to his goal, but he doubted he’d do it if it meant leaving Hugo behind. He was happy he might not have to make that choice in the end.

“We’ll keep in contact,” Varian smiled at Girda. “Thank you so much for everything.”

“No problem,” Girda smiled back, pulling his hood back over his head, hiding his ears once more.

“Before we leave,” Hugo started, eyes sharp. Varian dreaded Hugo’s words for only a second. “Were you serious about being older than six hundred years?”

At that, Varian palmed his forehead and sighed. “Are you kidding me?”

Girda simply laughed. “Yes, I’m quite certain I’ve reached six-hundred and sixty three this year.”

“You don’t ask that,” Varian pulled Hugo out of the backroom. “Why are you so rude?”

Hugo laughed. “Just to see you get flustered over it.”

Girda followed the two to the main part of his shop. “Varian, how can the mailman find you?”

Varian stopped midway into pushing Hugo out of the store. “Oh, yeah, Varian son of Quirin, Old Corona. Would that suffice?”

“It very well does,” Girda said. “Have safe travels.”

“Thanks again for everything,” Varian tightened his fists around his satchel strap resting over his shoulder. “See you.”

“Later, old man,” Hugo waved before being pushed out by Varian.

“Rude!” Varian moved through the thick curtain. When his eyes adjusted to the light outside he found Nuru and Yong sitting on the roadside. “Nuru, Yong?”

They both perked up at the sound of Varian’s voice. Nuru was the quickest to get to her feet. “What was going on inside of that store!?” she rounded on Varian. “We were so worried!”

“Oh, sorry,” Varian started. “I didn’t mean to worry you guys.”

“We couldn’t get in!” Yong explained. “It was like there was invisible glass in the door. We thought you two were kidnapped or something.”

“What do you mean?” Hugo asked. “Nuru?”

Nuru shrugged. “It’s as he says. We couldn’t get in. There was this sign saying that the shopkeeper was out, but since you two hadn’t returned yet, we wanted to check anyway. There was no way for us to get in.”

Varian and Hugo shared looks before Hugo started. “Welp, that elf has some tricks up his sleeves, I guess.”

Varian shushed him, placing his index finger at his lips. “I don’t think he wants that getting out, since he’s hiding his ears and all.”

“Did you say elf?” Nuru whispered.

Yong came in closer too. “Do those exist?”

“We’ll explain on the way, where it’s more private,” Varian said, eyeing the people walking on the streets. “What time is it anyway?”

“It’s about an hour past midday,” Nuru answered.

“That late?” Hugo asked. “How long were we in there, Varian?”

Varian shrugged. “I didn’t think it was that long.”

“Anyways, if both of you are all right, let’s head back to the inn and start packing, we’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon.”

“Okay, let's go,” the boys answered Nuru in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! And many more thanks to Justine for being the beta reader of this chapter. Check her stuff out here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IFoundYouJustineTime !!
> 
> Can I get a “heyo” for moon!Varian!? :D No worries, it’s not the drive of the story, but I just can’t do with the fact the kid (now adult) has a blue hair stripe for his entire life and the show just shrugs it off. We’re in a world with magic hair, yall! So magic it shall be!
> 
> See you next chapter! <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ey ey ey! I made it! For having made you guys wait for the last update so long I wanted to upload quickly. So, here it is! A long chapter about a week later. That feels good! Welp, I won’t hold y’all up any longer! <3

It had taken them far too long to pack all their belongings, and by them, that meant Yong. Yong tended to be a mess when it came to unpacking and packing his belongings. Varian spent a lot of his time helping the boy out, just to hurry things along. To make up for lost time, they resorted to taking a short cut through the forest. They trudged speedily through the undergrowth, but as they ventured deeper the thick roots and bushes of the freely growing forest began catching their feet and slowing their progress. The group fought to keep pace.

“So,” Nuru started, eyes still cast down at her dress. “When are we going to hear what happened in that shop?”

Both Varian and Hugo had their swords out, cutting a way through the growth. “Well, ehh, a lot happened,” Varian said.

Yong stumbled over jutting roots as he tried to get Prometheus over a particularly high one and bumped into Hugo. “Woah!” Hugo caught the boy before he could tumble further. “Watch your feet there, buddy.”

“We need to go a bit more to the left,” Nuru said, pointing.

“We can’t,” Varian panted a sigh. “Those shrubberies are too thick. I’d say we round our curve a bit.”

“We’ll be taking too long,” Nuru complained.

“We’ll be able to move,” Varian moaned in annoyance.

“Why don’t we take a break,” Hugo interjected. “We’ve been walking for hours, and I believe both Nuru and Yong are aching to hear the story.”

Nuru and Varian shared stubborn looks before they both sighed. “Fine,” Nuru said and dropped to the floor.

Yong quickly sat down too, his eagerness to hear the story obvious. “Tell us, Varian!”

Varian sheathed his sword and took a seat as well. He pulled out his water skin and took a deep long sip before starting to explain. He told how Girda knew Varian had used the potion, how the potion was magic, and how the shopkeeper knew that Varian had magic too. He told how Girda tried to release it, and how he’d figured out it was blocked.

“So he kind of invited me to become his apprentice once I’ve released the magic inside me. He gave me this satchel with two books and a few potions,” Varian concluded with a laugh. “He told me it was homework.”

“Wow, that is amazing!” Yong said, star-struck by the story. “So, you’re going to become a wizard?”

Varian laughed again, face flushed. “I don’t think I have enough magic to become something like that.”

Nuru had listened quietly to the story, her face solemn and serious throughout, as if she were trying to pick apart every word spoken. “An elf, huh,” she finally said. “Of all the myths…”

“It sounds like quite the tall tale, doesn’t it?” said Varian.

“It does!” Yong chimed in. “But it’s amazing anyways!”

Hugo stared quietly at Varian for a moment before carefully saying. “You never said anything about what you saw.”

Varian stiffened at those words, he had so hoped they wouldn’t mention it and just forget that small detail of the story.

Hugo clearly saw him grow uncomfortable as he continued. “You don’t have to share.”

“No,” Varian waved. “No, I think it will do me good to share.” He eyed their surroundings. “But this is not the place nor time to discuss my rather… troubled… past.”

“We have indeed taken long enough,” Nuru rose to her feet. “We really should continue if we hope to sleep at all tonight.”

“Yes, Nuru is right,” Varian got up and dusted off his pants. “We need to keep up the pace!”

They continued, Hugo and Varian cutting the greenery for a path; Nuru closely guiding them in the right direction, keeping a keen eye on her magical star map dress. To Varian’s relief they didn’t argue about directions again, as she seemed a bit more lenient about rounding their curves, making it easier on the boys cutting their path. 

It was a hard day of travel over all. They spent a long time in the forest but to the group’s relief the trees and greenery finally thinned. Happy that they no longer had to force Prometheus through the difficult terrain, or cut a path, they quickened their steps once more.

But luck was not on their side. The sun had started to set low, and clouds were moving in fast.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Varian complained loudly, eyeing the dark fluffy clouds. “Rain too?”

“I think we have about an hour or two left to go,” Nuru said, eyeing her star map and then peeking over Varian’s shoulder to see his map. “Yeah, two at most.”

“Can’t we take cover until the rain passes?” Yong asked.

The other three stared into the sky, trying to size up the clouds. All three came to the same conclusion.

“It’ll take too long for us to take shelter and wait out the rain,” Hugo said.

“Unless we want to set up camp here?” Varian thought out loud.

“No,” Nuru said. “These woods are quite dangerous at night. I’d rather we sleep within the borders of the next village for safety’s sake.”

Varian shrugged. “Sorry, Yong, we’ve got to deal with the rain for now. I just hope we’re wrong on how long it’s going to rain for.”

They were not. It rained for nearly the remainder of their travels. And it rained hard. The four of them were completely soaked by the time they reached the village. The only luck granted to them was that the rain let up before they found a place to set up camp.

The four of them looked like they had jumped in a river, clothes clinging awkwardly against their forms and hair hanging low and heavy. They placed their belongings down, ready to set up their tents.

“I’m freezing,” Varian said. “How about I get us some wood for a nice fire to warm up before heading off to bed?”

The three nodded at that idea, all holding themselves to try and vend of some of the cold shivers.

“Why don’t you crash in my tent tonight,” Hugo said. “We set up our tents while you get us some wood, and then you don’t have to worry about yours.”

“Sounds great,” Varian smiled. “I’ll see you guys in a bit.”

He left the group to go into the village, trying to see if there were any places still open in this late hour. Sadly, everything that looked like a shop was closed and dark. He looked around more before he found a house with lots of firewood stacked outside and lights burning inside. So he gathered all the boldness he could muster in his state and knocked on the door. It opened slightly to show a man.

“What do you want?” the man barked, noticing right away that Varian was a stranger to the village. Go figure, thought Varian.

“I eeh,” Varian started timidly. “My friends and I just arrived in the village, and we are looking for some firewood to warm up and dry ourselves. We’ve had a long and hard travel. Could I buy some from you?”

The man’s eyes shifted to the stack of wood and frowned in confusion. “You didn’t just steal it?”

Varian shook his head, and the man seemed to lighten up a bit towards him. He sighed and gave a small smile. He tilted his head towards the wood and said. “Grab what you need. We’ll talk tomorrow about some trades you can offer.”

“Thank you so much!” Varian smiled in relief. 

The door closed, and Varian quickly gathered enough wood to have a good fire that wouldn’t burn too long. They only needed to warm up and dry themselves after all. It was far too late for a long night at the campfire.

When he returned with his wood, he saw the tents were mostly finished. He quickly built a stack and started lighting it. When the fire started to burn nice and bright the group graduallly gathered around. Nuru was the first to join him. Hugo was second, making sure to take the place next to Varian. Yong joined last. Varian shivered hard as he peeled the wet outer layers off of himself. He hadn’t been wearing much to begin with, but the cold caused by the wet fabrics did lift a bit.

“So,” Hugo started, toweling his hair dry. “Gonna tell us what you saw yet, wizard?”

“I’m not a-” Varian cut himself off with a sigh. “Sure I’ll tell.”

The group stopped their drying with towels to look at Varian in suspense. Hugo even put his glasses back on. Varian sat down, The towel Hugo had given him still over his head.

“I’m afraid it’s a bit hard to explain what I saw without context so I guess I have to tell you all how I went to jail,” Varian started, eyes cast down and hands tightly grasped.

The group openly gasped and gawked.

“What!?” Hugo almost yelled.

“Y- _you_ went to jail?” Yong asked.

“Dare I ask for what charges?” Nuru’s voice was horse.

Varian dug his face deeply into his hands, as it turned beat red. “Well, uhmm, high treason, attempted regicide, kidnapping of the royal family, errr multiple charges of attempted murder, assault, theft, and blackmailing I believe?”

He could feel them stare at him. This had been a bad idea. They were disgusted by him for sure. Would they leave him? Boot him out of the camp? Nuru, especially, would hate him now, considering, come on, regicide! She was the princess of this kingdom, after all. It was only natural for her to hate him. He would hate himself.

He could feel the darkness close around his mind. They hated him. He knew, they hated him. They’d seen him now for the monster he truly was. They’d shun him. Chase him off. Maybe even capture him, and put him back in jail where he belonged.

A hand grabbed his wrist, and Varian was so startled that he pulled back from his hands, face in the open now to see Hugo sitting on his knees before him, face full of concern.

“Varian?” his voice sounded kind. Where they going to capture him? Were they going to trick him? Were they afraid of him? “Did you hear us at all?”

Varian’s mind snapped back towards Hugo at those words. Had he heard what? What had they said? He shook his head a little, eyes wide and expecting an attack.

“I think you’re having a panic attack,” Nuru’s voice came from his side, close. His head snapped towards her. Her face looking concerned as well.

Yong suddenly tackled Varian with a hug. Varian yelped in shock as the smaller body connected with his. For a split second, he thought they were going to bring him down. Tie him up. But then he realized that he wasn’t captured in a hold but in an embrace.

“Please don’t be so afraid,” Yong said, voice sounding near to tears.

Varian wrapped his arms around Yong and hugged back. He needed to focus on the here and now. Push away all those thoughts, no matter how real they felt. Nuru touched his shoulder. He startled a little, but relaxed into the touch quick enough. Hugo sat down beside him, a hand wrapping around his head, cupping his temple before bringing his and Varian’s head together, forming a side hug. The group stayed like that for a few moments before Hugo spoke.

“We may not know a lot about you. But we _do_ know _you_ ,” he said. “You don’t have to be afraid to open up to us.”

“We believe in second changes here.” Nuru tightened her grip on Varian’s shoulder.

“I will always care for you, Varian,” Yong said, his face still buried against Varian’s chest. “Nothing in your past will change that!”

Varian looked into Hugo’s eyes, finding warm green ones looking back. They did not speak of disgust or mistrust. They spoke of love and kindness. When had Hugo’s eyes softened this much towards him. When they met Hugo for the first time, he was all steel and smirking masks. Varian couldn’t quite remember when the sneers and smirks had turned into kind and soft smiles. But the difference felt like day and night in this moment.

He felt his mind calm down as he kept looking at Hugo to ground himself. His fingers held on tight on Yong, hugging him with so much passion. The firm and unmoving hand from Nuru seemed to keep him calm as well. His heart was calming down, and the feeling of sheer panic dulled.

There was a moment he wanted to close the little distance between his and Hugo’s lips, to just forget the things he was about to tell, and focus solely on Hugo. To lose his thought into the pleasure that was Hugo, into the safety that was Hugo. But he knew it was his mind trying it’s hardest to run away from his past. From his fears. This was the first step to releasing his magic. The first step of real healing. The later reason should have been enough, but it somehow never was. He had never given himself the room to admit his sins to others, to admit they still scared him, or that he still hated himself for it.

“Feeling better?” Nuru asked, voice ever so gentle.

Varian nodded, but he was shaking like a leaf. “Yeah,” the sound was oddly horse and distant. “Okay, le-let’s get this o-over with.” His voice faltered like it had often done when he was younger.

Yong pulled back and Hugo let his fingers slip down, but stayed close. Varian was very happy to feel Hugo tangle his fingers with his own. It felt safe.

“Okay,” he said again, feeling like it was the only safe thing to say, grasping for words. Where to even start? “So, you guys know about the Moonstone and the Sundrop, right?” The trio nodded and Varian continued.

“Well, before the whole Sundrop vs. Moonstone thing went down that most kingdoms know about there was a long time when dark rocks slowly invaded Corona. At that time I lived in Old Corona, one of the outer villages of Corona. We were one of the first to get over run by these rocks. I only knew these rocks from when Princess Rapunzel showed them to me. She made me keep it a secret. But they were destroying our village. They were unbreakable so they punctured our houses, if not just down right toppled them. It ruined our harvests and a few people had near misses almost being impaled by them.”

Both Nuru and Yong gasped at his words. Hugo tightened his grip on Varian’s hand.

“My father, the leader of Old Corona, calmed the people and set out to ask the King for help. I convinced him to bring me along. But when he got audience with the King, he lied. He said Old Corona was thriving and needed more land for our agriculture. The King complied and gave us more land. Land for us to flee to from the black rocks. I tried to argue with my father, but he turned me down, hard. I asked for help from Rapunzel, and she told me to wait. She told me that she hadn’t forgotten her promise to work out the mystery of those rocks, and that she would help me. I returned to Old Corona, my relationship with my father not the best.

The rocks kept growing. They kept coming. I mapped the places the rocks were and kept adding where they grew anew. From this data I discovered they would reach the capital of Corona soon. I felt like I couldn’t wait any longer. So I did the only thing I could think of, and threw all my knowledge into the game. I experimented on the rocks, trying to make chemical compounds that could undo their structural integrity. If force couldn’t remove them, maybe alchemy could. I worked endless hours, trying to avoid my father noticing. He had told me to stay away from the rocks, but I couldn’t just stand by, and watch them destroy everything.

One morning I had made a new compound, but my father found me. He got angry with me, and I spilled the new compound on a rock without realizing it. While we argued, the compound reacted and started to grow. My father pushed me out of the way before it could incase me in the amber it created. Instead, my- my father was trapped.”

Hugo leaned a bit more against Varian’s side as his voice cracked, his thumb rubbing against the side of Varian’s hand. Varian let out a shuddering breath before continuing.

“So, I panicked. I ran for the capital to get help. I fought my way through a snowstorm to get to the castle. But once there, there was no help for me. The capital was facing an emergency, and Rapunzel could not come to help me. I,” Varian sighed. “I begged her. I begged her on my knees to help me save my father. She turned me down, and I got hoisted off by guards. Once returned home, my father had been completely incased by amber. I was too late. I failed him.”

Varian shut his eyes, as he could still feel the phantom of that anger rise inside him. Looking back now, he understood why Rapunzel couldn’t help, yet the anger of being abandoned in that moment, of being so alone and scared, it all felt so real and reasonable.

“I- ehh,” he tightened his grip on Hugo’s hand. “I got angry. _Very…_ angry.”

Varian couldn’t help but feel his face heat up. He had made so many mistakes. He had been so irrational.

“Rapunzel never came to help. Never came to see if I was alright. The guards turned up in my village a few days later, asking where I was. They said I had attacked Rapunzel and needed to be locked up. I fled from my home. I didn’t have time to take the data I had gathered. I needed it to find a way to free my father. Nothing I had tried had worked so far. The amber was just as unbreakable as the black rocks.

I couldn’t return home, as there were people cloaked in black guarding my house. They stopped anyone from going into my house. So I asked Rapunzel to help me once more. I lied about knowing how to stop the rocks if she simply retrieved this graphtyc for me. One I was almost done translating. One that might have held the key to releasing my dad.

She did and I used her to steal the Sunflower, the first carrier of the Sundrop. I used her to get it and ran with the Sunflower. But it didn’t work. Of course it didn’t, it no longer was the Sundrop, after all. Rapunzel was now. So I made a plan. A plan to get Rapunzel in my lab and force her to help me save my dad. I made a potion to give to Ruddiger, to have him grow into a monster version of himself and ravage the capital. I used the distraction to abduct the queen and take her to my lab. I knew the king would be furious and would march right up to my lab. Rapunzel wouldn’t stay idle either. Taking the queen ensured they both would come right to me.

What they didn’t expect was that I prepared an army of reverse-engineered automatons. I made dozens to fend off the army that would undoubtedly come to rescue the queen, and I made one for me to snatch Rapunzel if that was necessary.”

“Wait, waitwaitwaitwait!” Hugo held up his free hand. “Hold up a sec! You’re saying that _you_ are that person who almost overthrew Corona with the technical marvel of automatons!? The same person the entirety of Ingvarr talked about? You’re a legend!”

Varian turned an almost purple shade of red as he looked away in shame. “Y-yeah, that idiot was me.”

“Idiot!?” Hugo nearly shouted. Nuru shushed him, pointing at the houses a few yards away. He lowered his voice but pressed on. “You built automatons strong and good enough to face off Corona’s army. That is incredible. Even Ingvarr hasn’t had anyone make actually good automatons before and we’re specialized in making machines.”

“Well, I guess it’s quite the feat I accomplished,” Varian rubbed the back of his neck, still not meeting Hugo’s eyes. “I guess my vengence fueled rage was enough for me to reverse-engineer those things in matter of days.”

“Days!?” Hugo yelled again, this time Nuru loudly shushing him.

“It’s the dead of night, Hugo,” she hissed. “Keep. It. Down.”

“S-sorry,” Hugo said in an annoyed voice. He would have denied it if anyone pointed out that he was pouting.

“Well, anyways…” continued Varian. “The princess and the king both snuck into my lab, trying to overpower me two on one. But I trapped them. I threatened to put the queen in amber as well and forced Rapunzel to let me use her hair to try and break the amber and set my dad free. But it didn’t work. I got so angry. I was so hurt… I just… lashed out. I tried to kill the queen and Cassandra. I tried to hurt Rapunzel as much as I possibly could. Just to make her feel what I felt. I did and said a lot of things I deeply regret. Things I know were wrong. I was so lost in my anger… in my hurt.

My hatred for the rocks, my fear of losing my father, and my hurt of being betrayed by my friends, all turned me so nasty… so… evil…” his voice gave out again.

Varian had pulled his hand free from Hugo to clamp both his hands over his lips, body trembling as he continued. “I’ve blamed the rocks for so long. But I know it was me. It was all my fault. I let the hate take over. Let my anger guide me. I know it’s all my fault, yet I can’t help but feel if only those damn rocks never destroyed everything I cared for. If only they hadn’t hurt me first… Maybe I wouldn’t have hurt other people afterward.”

“Varian,” Hugo reconnected, this time his fingers finding the side of Varian’s face. “You were… what? fourteen? Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“I almost killed people, Hugo!” Varian suddenly sneered, only to be startled by his own outburst, and he covered his lips again with his hands. He could feel tears welling up, and he hated it. “I almost killed a really good friend… someone I was in love with back then.”

The trio was silent as they watched tears roll down Varian’s face.

“My hate overruled my love for someone so effectively, it scares me. I even joked about it,” Old anger was boiling in his veins, he was aware his voice was rising. “They locked me up. Put me behind bars. Let me rot for a year, letting me simmer and steep in my anger and disappointment. I broke free with other criminals to try and topple Corona. I did it to get the chance to erase everyone’s memory of me. In doing so I almost caused the downfall of Corona once again. But this time came to my senses. I turned my back the other criminals, and tried to help right my wrongs… And you know what’s the worst of it?” his voice peeked, creaking at the edges, tears rolling down like a waterfall. “They forgave me!”

He felt like he could explode, maybe even implode. The anger of them forgiving him, when he couldn’t even forgive himself, was all too much for him.

“After all I did! After all the pain and damage I caused. All it took was me stopping the other criminals from destroying my own kingdom with a chemical _I_ designed!”

“But isn’t that a good thing, that they forgave you?” Nuru asked gently.

“No!” Varian got up in a snap, almost causing Yong to tumble as he was still leaning against Varian. “No they shouldn’t have forgiven me! They shouldn’t have even put me in jail! Anyone else would have been hanged for what I did!”

“Varian!” Nuru squeaked his name, horror clear on her face. “D-don’t say that.”

Yong simply watched with a white face, and Hugo reached out with a trembling hand.

Varian sunk to the floor, face covered once more with his hands, sobbing. It was the first time he had allowed himself to openly sob in front of his friends. It was all too much for him, reliving his past, and remembering how he’d have rather been hanged than suffer the consequences of his deeds. Rather than be all alone.

His knees slowly soaked up the cold mud as he simply bowed lower to the floor, tears and sobs wrecking his body. So much pain, so much hate spilling over.

Cold hands slowly and gently cupped both his cheeks. Varian pulled his hands back just enough to see Hugo sitting in front of him. His breath hitched at the tears in Hugo’s eyes.

“Do you want to know why I think your friends forgave you?” Varian looked away but Hugo moved his head back gently. “Look at me, Varian.” Varian sighed before giving a slight nod. “Your friends understood that a lot happened, and that they made mistakes as well. They forgave you because they saw you regretted your actions. Isn’t that enough?”

“My regrets don’t change my actions!”

“No,” Hugo answered calmly. “But forgiving someone doesn’t mean you say that what they’ve done is alright. It doesn’t erase your past, but it does give you room for a new future. They acknowledged your mistakes, and decided to still be friends with you. They decided that you’re worth putting away their hurt feelings towards you and accepted you.”

“But I didn’t earn it, don’t deserve it!”

“Why?”

“Because I hurt them!”

“Didn’t I hurt you?” Hugo asked. “I believe you’ve forgiven me.”

“That’s different!”

“Is it?” Hugo rubbed the tears from Varian’s face with his thumbs. “I don’t see how. We both messed up. We both hurt people, and did a whole lot of things we regret. Yet here we are,” He pulled Varian into a hug. “You don’t have to make up for all your mistakes before you can be forgiven. Being sorry was enough.”

Varian dug his face into the crook of Hugo’s neck, mind swaying with grief, hurt, and exhaustion. So many thoughts were racing though his mind, and he didn’t seem to be able to focus on them anymore. He wanted to tell Hugo that he was wrong and that he shouldn’t be forgiven. But he couldn’t give any form to those feelings, all words getting stuck behind his teeth.

“I love you, Varian,” These words were barely a whisper in his ear. He doubted anyone else could have heard these words. But they meant so much to him in that moment.

Varian tightened his hug. “Thank you,” he tried to whisper back, but his voice cracked and sounded loud in the silence established.

Varian pulled back from the hug, pushing down the urge to kiss Hugo. Instead, he rubbed at his face to get it dry. He looked at Nuru and Yong who stood a bit back, giving him space. He noticed now that the fire behind him had dimmed.

“Oh,” he turned to the fire, seeing it was embers now. “I’ll add some wood before it dies.”

Varian grabbed the last of the wood logs and carefully placed them into the slowly dying flames.

“I can get the flames back up again,” Yong said, pulling something from his pocket.

“NO!” The trio shouted in unison, all of them reaching out to the boy to stop him from whatever he wanted to throw into the fire.

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Yong pulled away from the fire, sounding affronted by the unity of the decline. “Just wanted to help.”

Varian gave him a soft smile. “I know Yong. But the fire is still hot enough, the logs will catch on soon enough.”

Varian had been right. In no time the logs burst back into high and bright flames. The gang worked on drying whatever remained wet or damp. Varian mostly tried to warm himself at the fire.

“So, about what I saw,” he started after a long silence of everyone going about their way. They all stopped in their tracks once more to listen. “I saw the black rocks returning. I heard the amber I created growing. I heard the voices of everyone I let down, of people who manipulated me… my own anger.”

His blue eyes never left the fire, the yellow glow of the flames reflecting clearly in his still moist eyes. “They were all calling out for me. Begging me to stop. Trying to convince I’m a monster… being disappointed in me,” Yellow lights danced in his eyes. “It felt like the moon was crashing down on me, and the rocks were trapping me. The voices were overwhelming. It was too much to bare…”

The group stayed silent, expecting more. But nothing more came. Varian remained quiet, eyes not leaving the flames, hands still stuck out towards them.

“All those things,” Hugo said after a long silence. “Are what’s blocking your magic?”

Varian finally broke his endless stare into the fire and pulled back from it, rubbing his arms. “Yeah, I guess so.” Varian wanted to hide in Hugo’s arms again, he really did, but instead he awkwardly stared at the ground, unsure what to do.

Nuru placed a warm hand on Varian’s shoulder, her smile soft and caring. “Don’t worry, Varian. We’ll get through this.”

Yong nodded fiercely, his body shaking with the exaggerated movements. “Even when you return to Corona or that elf guy, we’ll always be here for you!”

“Thanks,” Varian said.

“Why don’t we call it a night for now. We’re all tired and we need to rest,” Nuru asked, retreating her hand.

“Yeah, I’m beat,” Yong yawned loud and long.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll extinguish the fire,” Varian said, still rubbing his arms.

“Good night,” Both Nuru and Yong said before leaving for their tents, leaving the two older males alone outside.

“Night,” Varian said.

“G’night,” Hugo added but lingered outside.

The flames had lowered a lot so it wouldn’t take much to snuff them out enough for it to be safe. He started to kick some of the mud into the dying flames, and startled slightly when a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind. He turned around to face Hugo, who promptly kissed him. Varian was a bit taken aback by the sudden kiss but leaned in anyway.

When they parted Hugo spoke in a hoarse voice. “I meant it when I said that I love you.”

Varian smiled, adoring the love he could see pool in those wonderfully green eyes. They reminded him of a deep forest fresh after a rainstorm, sun shining through leaves and raindrops. It was a kind of forest he would love to live in. “And I mean it when I say this,” he started. “I love you too.”

Their lips meet again in passion. Varian forgot himself for a moment until he lifted his leg and felt the heat of the dying embers behind him prick at his skin. He broke the kiss and swore he could hear a whimpering moan of complaint coming from Hugo.

“It’s late Hugo,” Varian pressed. “We should go sleep.”

“I guess you’re right,” Hugo said, helping Varian shove mud into the last embers until they were almost gone.

Hugo was the first to climb into the tent and Varian stayed outside for a bit. Because he had kneeled into the mud earlier his pants were downright filthy, and since Hugo’s tent was occupied to its max he didn’t think it wise to climb in with his pants still on. So he took a look around him, and seeing no one around, quickly stepped out of the pants. He laid them on one of the logs they had sat on and climbed into the tent. He just hoped no one would steal his pants.

As he backed into the tent, rear first he couldn’t help the yelp as he felt a hand grab him from behind. “Hugo!”

A hushed laughter filled the air as Varian moved in far enough to stare at the older man. “I don’t often get your ass shoved into my face,” the man shrugged, amusement clear on his face even in the darkness of the night. “Couldn’t resist the opportunity.”

Varian flushed bright red as he frowned at the other. He sat down on his mat and started to undress from his damp clothing. He shivered, annoyed that he hadn’t been able to completely shake the cold at the fire.

“Still cold?” Hugo asked, also stripping himself of his layers.

Varian nodded as he pulled a clean shirt over his head. He didn’t have many clean clothing left to sleep in, so he thought a shirt should do for tonight. Maybe they should take a day to wash their clothes tomorrow.

Hugo had pulled on a shirt as well, but also some shorts which fit loosely around his frame, almost like they weren’t his. “I know a way to get warm.” He said, unknotting the thin piece of fabric holding his hair up.

“Oh?” Varian laid down and moved his blankets up quickly, suppressing yet another shiver.

Another idea flashed through Hugo’s mind, but he quickly pushed that aside as he said. “Snuggles and kisses.”

Varian couldn’t help the small giggle coming from his lips as he watched Hugo crawl over to him, throwing his glasses somewhere into a corner of the tent. Their lips connected, Hugo leaning over him.

Instead of the slow deep kisses they had shared up till now, Hugo went all in for the small but bountiful kisses. Varian laughed an airy laugh as kisses rained down on him, finding the corner of his mouth, his cheeks, his nose, and even his jawline.

“Hugo,” his name tasted right on his tongue as the older male moved under his blankets, closing the little distance there was between them. The kisses kept on coming as one hand caressed the side of his face. Hugo’s body felt right, hovering ever so slightly above him, his heat warming him up. He was barely aware of the delighted noises that left his lips as Hugo kept on showering him with quick but sweet kisses.

Varian slung his arms around Hugo’s frame, one hand finding the soft but still slightly damp blond locks, and the other roaming his back. Hugo wasn’t quite toned muscles, but more lean muscles, and they felt divine under his heated touch. The smell of Hugo, simply Hugo, filled his mind as his fingers found Hugo’s spine.

“I love you,” Hugo said in-between the row of kisses he was planting on Varian’s jawline.

Varian laughed in excitement as those words made a heat blossom in his chest. He never knew he could feel this much love for a person, and he was pretty sure that if he loved him anymore he would explode.

“Hugo,” he whispered back, meeting his lips quickly. “I love you, Hugo.”

The quick kisses started to interchange with slower kisses, sloppy noises filling the tent. Joyful laughter kept bubbling up inside Varian, and he couldn’t help a few escaping between kisses. Heat was building between them and the kisses turned sloppier the longer they kept on going.

Varian had long lost track of Hugo’s hand roaming his body and his head was dizzy with bliss. Exhaustion and pleasure mixed into a combination very foreign to Varian. It felt like he could never sleep again, and yet he didn’t feel completely awake either.

He moaned Hugo’s name once more right before a particulary deep kiss. The front of the tent suddenly opened, and the shock pulled the both of them out of their dream state.

The warmth and comfort seemed to disappear in a snap as Nuru’s angry face stared down at them.

“N-Nuru?” his voice wavered as Varian’s already flushed face turned beat red.

“Can you two _please_ keep it down?” Her whispers sounded furious. “You’ve been keeping me awake with your loud make out session for god knows how long,” she hissed. “You’ll wake up Yong if you keep going like this.”

Varian thought he might die from shame right on the spot. Had they really been that loud? He hadn’t noticed how much noise they were making, he’d been so swept up in the moment.

“I’m s-so sorry,” Varian almost whimpered.

Hugo moved off of Varian and simply huffed, puffing his lose hair out of his face. “Sorry for keeping you up, Princess.”

Varian noted how he sounded everything but sorry. He was about to say something about it but Nuru had already closed the tent. Varian hid his face into his hands.

“Aaaahhh,” he sighed. “Take me now, death.”

Hugo snickered before pulling one of Varian’s hands away and giving him a quick peck on the side of his lips. “I’d say that was worth the angry princess.”

Varian moaned in displeasure. “Don’t you feel any shame?”

“Never,” Hugo said in a dramatic voice.

Varian rolled his eyes and pulled his blanket back up, covering himself. At least he was nice and warm now.

Hugo found his place under his own blanket and turned to his side, facing Varian. He was looking at Varian like he wanted to ask something, but stayed quiet. Varian openly stared back for a little while before asking.

“What’s on your mind?”

Hugo broke eye contact, moving to his back to stare at the top of the tent. “I ehh,” he started unsure. That was a description Varian wouldn’t use often for Hugo. “I just wondered if that was the thing.”

Varian gave the man a puzzled look. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, the thing, you know. The one you mentioned… or rather not mentioned.” Hugo said.

“The thing?” Varian repeated in question before it dawned on him. “Wait you though me having a bad past was the thing keeping me from dating you?”

“Wasn’t it?” Hugo asked, eyes meeting Varian’s again.

Blue eyes searched green for a moment before answering. “No, no it wasn’t,” he answered, voice barely a whisper. “It is something I wouldn’t simply share like that, let alone with Nuru and Yong.”

“How many secrets can a small body like yours hold?” Hugo asked, giving one of his toothy smiles.

“I’m not small,” Varian hissed softly, but fiercely.

“Oh honey, you are,” Hugo smirked.

“You’re just freakishly tall,” Varian shot back.

“What, me?” the blond asked. “I’d like to see myself as wonderfully medium sized.”

Varian rolled his eyes. “Yeah whatever.”

Hugo let go of his teasingly smile and moved in closer to Varian, brushing the back of his hand over the side of Varian’s face, brushing lose strands away. “What could possibly be still plaguing you, Varian?”

Varian sighed and closed his eyes, feeling the tug of sleep begging for him to rest. “Something complicated.”

Hugo seemed to take the hint and gave one last peck on his lips before closing his eyes. “I’ll wait for you to be ready,” he said. Varian could feel sleep pulling him under slowly, the world swaying around him. “Good night, Varian.”

“Good night… my favorite jerk,” Varian smiled, eyes closed, unable to see if Hugo reacted on his insult. The lack of verbal reaction seemed to indicate that even Hugo was too tired to keep up their teasing.

Varian smiled into his pillow as the ghost feeling of Hugo’s lips tingled on his own. “Love you.” Was all he said before he fell asleep, not quite sure if Hugo was still awake to hear it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Justine for beta reading this chapter! She’s the real MVP here! Check out her stuff here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IFoundYouJustineTime <3
> 
> Next chapter will be BIG! Not word count wise but plot wise! I’m so hyped! I can’t wait for you guys to see it! So… On ward we write!
> 
> Let me know what you thought! It was a pretty dialogue heavy chapter and I hope it wasn’t too much for you guys. But I do think it was a necessary part in this story, in Varian’s story, to be honest. So yeah, leave me your thoughts down below, they always make my day! <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning!!!!  
> This chapter contains content that might be triggering to some of you.  
> Please do not read the italisized text if a light description of rape is triggering for you. There will be mentions of rape after the italisized text but it will not be described. If this is too much for you, please skip over this chapter. I will provide a small summary at the end of the chapter for the people that chose to skip this. It is a very important part of the story but I do understand this can be triggering or upsetting to people.

_ Heat was the first thing that came to him, sweltering and uncomfortable. As he opened his eyes he realized he was only inches away from the campfire. Startled by the sheer closeness to the fire he stumbled backwards. His eyes scanned around the campsite. Wait, this was their first campsite in Koto. They already left Koto, right?  _

_ His eyes landed on Nuru. She probably knew what was going on.  _

_ “Hi, Nuru. Why are we back in Koto?” _

_ Nuru looked up, her eyes scanning him as if debating what to do with him. She scoffed as if she’d found something to dislike and turned her back at him.  _

_ “I never told you that I needed an escort back home.” Flinty yellow eyes looked back over her shoulder. “Especially one as homicidal as you. You’re too unstable.” _

_ “What?” Varian gasped, her words hitting him hard. “I ehh- Hey wait!” _

_ Nuru had started walking away from him. Varian reached out, stepped forward but it was as if the ground and air between them stretched. For every step she made he had to make several.  _

_ “Nuru!” _

_ She was moving away from him with astonishing speed. He tried hard to keep up, but his steps were becoming sluggish, and the world seemed to keep on stretching between them as if to push Varian away.  _

_ “You’re so creepy.” Yong’s voice cut through the sound of Nuru echoing footsteps.  _

_ “Huh?” Varian stopped his pursuit of Nuru to turn to Yong.  _

_ “I thought you were cool,” Yong’s words sounded unusually cold. “But you’re just a murderer, a bad guy.” _

_ “What are you taking about?” Varian’s heart stuttered to a halt. _

_ “I mean, you nearly killed all your friends, right? What will stop you from pulling the same stunt on us?” the younger boy continued. “And to think I looked up to you.” _

_ “Yong, I would never hurt you!” Varian tried, but Yong just narrowed his eyes.  _

_ “Didn’t you say you tried to kill the person you were in love with?” _

_ “I- ahh…” Words failed Varian. It was true, wasn’t it? He had tried to kill Cass back when he was fighting the Coronan Army. “I won’t ever do that again.” _

_ Red eyes climbed up, locking unto the blue in Varian’s eyes. “Or you’ll just blame the moon again.” _

_ “I never- Yong! I can’t even use the magic!” He tried to defend himself. _

_ “The perfect excuse.” Yong shrugged before putting on a voice as if to parody Varian’s voice. “I couldn’t help it. I don’t have control over my magic.” _

_ “Yong, I would never-” _

_ “Wouldn’t you!?” Yong pushed Varian away. “You just run excuse after excuse!” _

_ Varian tried to speak up again, but Yong cut him off before he could. “Like I would ever trust you!” _

_ Yong pushed Varian away again, much harder this time. Varian lost his footing, only to be captured by a pair of arms from behind. “Thanks, I-” Varian looked up to see Hugo look at him with predatory eyes, a look that made him near unrecognizable.  _

_ Varian quickly stepped away from Hugo, startled. He looked back, afraid Yong would be even more mad at him, only to see he had disappeared completely. Slender fingers wrapped around Varian’s chin, moving his head back towards Hugo. _

_ “Focus on me, Varian.” _

_ Hugo was so close that his voice left a ghost of warmth over his face. Varian wanted to bury his face into Hugo’s shoulder but something was off. Besides, Yong worried him, Nuru worried him.  _

_ “Hugo, did you hear what Yong said?” he asked, but instead of receiving an answer Hugo moved in and pressed a kiss on his lips. Varian broke the kiss. “Hugo, did you hear me?” _

_ “You talk too much,” Hugo whispered and gave a toothy grin. “Why don’t you just shut up that pretty face of yours and please me a little, ey?” _

_ Varian stepped away from Hugo, his heart sinking like a stone. “Hugo?” _

_ Hugo flashed an irritated frown at Varian’s retreat and grabbed Varian’s arm, pulling him in hard. “I waited long enough, don’t you think?” _

_ Panic exploded inside Varian. He hadn’t told Hugo yet, had he? Had he taken too long? Would Hugo be okay if he told him now? Would he understand? _

_ “Hugo, I ehh-” Varian tried to explain, but Hugo pushed him down into his mat. Wait, when did they get inside Hugo’s tent? “Please wait!” _

_ Hugo sat down on top of Varian, effectively pinning him down. “I won’t wait anymore,” he growled, ripping open Varian’s shirt. _

_ Tears streamed down Varian's face as he tried to stop Hugo’s hands. “Wait! I’m asexual! I don’t want this, Hugo!” _

_ Hugo’s hands halted from stripping Varian further. Varian felt a flash of relief but it disappeared in an instant when he saw green eyes look down at him in disgust. “What?” _

_ “I- I- I do-don’t feel sexual attraction. A-a-and-” Hugo shoved a hand hard onto Varian’s mouth, silencing him mid stutter.  _

_ “You know what,” Hugo leaned in, eyes scanning Varian’s body. “Let's just ignore that for now and enjoy each other?” _

_ Varian shook his head as much as he could, still silenced and pinned down by Hugo’s firm hand. Hugo tightened his grip a bit more causing Varian to squeak in pain. “You’ve been leading me on long enough, Varian. Time to give what you’ve promised.” _

_ Varian somehow squirmed out of Hugo’s hold. “No! I never promised you this!”  _

_ “Didn’t you?” Hugo asked, his hand roaming Varian’s bare chest. “You kissed me, even slept in my arms. You even showed me your ugly side, how you were a criminal,” Hugo caressed Varian’s face like he was petting an animal. “The next step is logical, right?” _

_ “But I don’t want it,” Varian focused on Hugo’s eyes, trying to ignore the burning sensation of a hand touching him where he did not want it to.  _

_ Hugo laughed, hard and shrill, like Varian was a child trying to explain that gravity wasn’t real. “Ooh,” he coed. “You just don’t know what you’ve missed out on. I’ll make you beg for more once I’m done.” _

_ “I don’t want to, Hugo!” Varian grabbed Hugo’s hands. “Stop!” _

_ “You’ve never tried it with Cassandra?” _

_ “No!” Varian tried to push Hugo off of him. “I never even dated her!” _

_ Hugo hummed. “So you’re actually a virgin.” _

_ Varian’s cheeks burned in shame as tears still rolled down his face. He tried so hard, but couldn’t get Hugo off of him. He wouldn’t listen to him. Why was he doing this? “Stop it, please.” _

_ “You can’t say you don’t like it if you never tried it,” Hugo opened Varian’s pants. “You’ll love it! Or at the very least, I will.” _

_ Varian tried to fight him off but found his hands stuck above his head, invisible binds keeping him down. He couldn’t fight Hugo off any longer. “Stop! Hugo stop it, please!” pleading was the only thing left for him. Hugo didn’t listen, his hand fondling. “Please!” _

_ Varian felt sick, sobs forcing themselves out as he tried not to throw up. He pleaded for Hugo to stop. Told him he hated it, but Hugo no longer answered him. Hungry green eyes took in his body as he pulled off the last pieces of clothes. Varian wasn’t sure when it happened, but Hugo was undressed now too. His world was tunneling as Hugo kept on touching and groping him. He wanted it to stop, he hated it! But a small voice inside him insisted that this might fix him. That Hugo was right. Maybe he had been wrong all this time. Could he become normal if he liked this after all? Would this be a cure? Then why did he hate it so much? Why did it hurt so much? Why did he feel like he would rather die than live through this. _

_ Hugo had moved Varian’s legs up, sitting behind him instead of on top. Shame, hurt, confusion, and disgust rolled up into one as Varian pleaded one last time, hoping against hope that Hugo would hear him, would listen to him. Hugo didn’t as he pushed in, and Varian cried out in pain. _

.

.

.

->\/<-

.

.

.

Hugo awoke, not from the sunlight, as it was still completely dark. Nor was it Nuru shaking his tent and telling him to get up, as that wasn’t her voice. No it was something he hadn’t awoken to before. It took him a long moment to realize it was Ruddiger making the horrid noise in his ear. 

“Varian,” Hugo moaned trying to push the animal away. “Get Ruddiger.”

Ruddiger didn’t back down after the hard shove, instead he pushed on, his small claws grabbing into Hugo’s face. Hugo gave a shout at the sudden attack and shot up to throw Ruddiger off of him. “WHAT THE-”

Panic cut Hugo off as he saw Varian thrashing beside him. The younger male was whimpering and sobbing, eyes shut tight. Ruddiger, now satisfied that Hugo had seen his human, sat on top of Varian, nudging worryingly at Varian’s face. Small claw sized scratch marks were evidence that the raccoon had tried the same offensive strategy to wake Varian up that he had used on Hugo. But it had clearly been ineffective. 

Hugo quickly moved over to Varian and started shaking the younger man to wake him. “Varian,” Hugo tried, though he doubted Varian could hear his voice over his own crying and gasping. “Varian!”

Blue eyes suddenly snapped open, fear and horror clear within them. It was barely a second of silence before Varian screamed and pushed Hugo away,  _ hard _ . Before Hugo knew what was happening the younger male had fled the tent in a hurry.

Hugo climbed out of the tent as quickly as he could, seeing a clearly panicked Varian hugging himself. Tears were rolling fast and thickly over his cheeks, and his breath was labored. Varian had his arms wrapped tightly around himself and looked like he was about to fall apart. Was he having a panic attack?

What could he have possibly seen in his dreams?

“Varian?” Hugo wanted to remove the distance between them, to hug Varian, sooth him. But as he reached out his arm towards him, stepping closer, he saw the fear grow in Varian’s eyes. 

“Don’t-”

Varian didn’t need to finish. The message was loud and clear. Varian was afraid of Hugo and was not to be touched right now. Hugo simply took back his arm and stepped back as well. “It’s okay,” he said, holding his hands up. “I’m not going to touch you.”

“What is going on?” Nuru stepped out of her tent, eyes barely open. “Do you know what time it is?” Nuru rubbed her eyes.

“Who’s shouting?” Yong poked his head out of his tent.

“Varian was having a nightmare, I believe,” Hugo answered, hands still up as a sign of peace. “He’s quite upset.”

Nuru gave one last good rub to her face and eyed Varian, finding a sobbing and shaking mess. Her confusion quickly melted away for worry. “Varian?”

Yong had climbed out of his tent as well, eyes filled with concern. 

Varian suddenly crouched down, his body curling up into itself, and his face hidden behind his knees. “G-give me a moment, p-please,” Varian’s voice wavered and cracked.

There was a silence as Varian’s breath seemed to calm and the shaking subsided. The boy sighed a few times, as if to test the waters with breathing. Varian slowly uncurled out of his ball and sat back, legs poking forward, his body slightly limp in its pose. He gave another shaking sigh as he rubbed his face. When he rubbed away most of the tears he looked up, eyes oddly dry, hurt, but mostly bone crushing tired. 

Hugo wanted to ask if it was okay to approach again, to touch him again, but remembering the fear in Varian’s eyes made him hamper his action. 

“Varian,” Nuru started gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Blue eyes slowly dragged towards Nuru, head turning with them. He shook his head, eyes dipping down.

“Varian.” The blue eyes moved back to Hugo. “Can I sit with you?”

Staying quiet for a moment, Varian nodded. Hugo quickly sat down beside him, careful not to touch Varian. Nuru shared a look with Hugo, silently asking if he would be fine on his own. Hugo gave a nearly invisible nod, and Nuru turned to Yong, her voice in such a low whisper that Hugo couldn’t hear. The two retreated to their tents. 

Varian and Hugo stayed in silence for a while, Varian taking deep breaths, eyes only half open. Hugo wondered if he didn’t need to just sleep again. But then again, he knew how scary it could be to go back to sleeping when a nightmare still edged into your mind. What could he have possibly dreamed about to have such a strong reaction? Hugo’s mind wandered to the last evening, the things they talked about, the things Varian shared, when he noticed Varian started to shiver. 

Right. He was cold. So was Hugo. They were both sitting under a clear stary night sky in just their undergarments. Hugo got up and Varian looked up, a question in his eyes. Hugo thought for a moment that Varian seemed even more scared of Hugo leaving than staying. 

“I’m grabbing you a blanket,” Hugo answered the big baby blues. “You’re freezing… so am I.”

Hugo quickly got into the tent and pulled a warm sweater over his head, and grabbed Varian’s blanket. As he got outside he saw Varian still sitting on the ground, eyes following his every movement. 

“Come, stand up,” Hugo said. Varian seemed to consider him for a short moment, but got to his feet anyway. Hugo draped the blanket around Varian’s shoulders, tugging at both ends in the front to make sure it closed securely around Varian’s form. “Let’s sit down by the river.” Hugo nodded his head towards the water. “So we can talk in private.”

Varian stiffened for a moment, lips pulling thin, and brows furrowing ever so slightly. He shook his head, and looked back up to Hugo before nodding. “Yeah,” His voice sounded hoarse from all the sobbing he had done.

Hugo led him to the water stream, settling the two of them at a carved log that acted as a handcrafted bench. Hugo turned to Varian, who’s eyes stared at the water rushing past. “Are you okay?”

Varian looked away from the water and looked at Hugo. “Yeah, I-… yeah…” his eyes turned back to the water, the last yeah sounded far less confident. “It was… just a dream…”

Hugo was happy to see Varian was slowly coming back to himself. The distant look seemed to slowly melt away. Hugo dared to reach out, staying alert for any sign of Varian disliking it, and placed his hand gently on Varian’s shoulder. Varian looked back at Hugo and gave him a small smile. 

“I must have spooked you.”

“A little,” Hugo admitted. “What- if I may ask, what did you dream about that made you so scared… Of me?”

Shame flashed over Varian’s face for a moment before he sighed, tension high in his shoulders. Hugo watched as the younger male moved a bit closer, reaching for Hugo’s free hand. He took hold of it, pulled it into the warmth of his blanket, and placed it against his chest. Varian looked into Hugo’s eyes, intent on conveying something with certainty. 

“I love you, Hugo.” That was not what Hugo expected Varian to say. “I trust you, I really do.”

“Varian?” Hugo started to become unsure as Varian had asserted those words while holding a firm grip on Hugo’s hand. Varian’s heart was beating fast under his ribs, the thumping clear against Hugo’s fingers. 

“I know that you would never do to me what you did in my dream. This is  _ not  _ how I see you.”

Hugo felt his heart sink. “W-what did I do?”

Hugo watched how pain, shame, and sadness mingled in Varian’s eyes as tears welled up in them. “I- you…” Trembling hands tightened their grip on Hugo’s hand. “You raped me.”

Hugo gasped, very aware how Varian’s eyes broke contact with his. “What?” his voice shook as his mind tried to wrap around the fact that an embodiment of him hurt Varian in such a despicable way. Of course it hadn’t been him. It hadn’t even been real. But the simple fact that Varian’s mind had conjured up an image of him doing something that horrible was something that scared Hugo. The way Varian had been so afraid when he woke up that he had pushed Hugo away from him, it all made sense, and it all hurt so much more. 

“I don’t know why I dreamed that,” Varian pressed. “I know you would never do that.”

Hugo paused at those words, his heart calming. “Varian,” He moved a bit closer to Varian, his one hand warm against Varian’s chest. “Dreams are often nonsensical. There is no need to derive meaning behind it.”

Varian’s grip tightened just a tad bit more before he leaned forward, crossing the little distance between them as he laid his head against Hugo’s chest. Hugo was quick to use his free hand to wrap around Varian’s body pressing him against himself. He could hear Varian sigh against his chest, a tension loosening in his body. Hugo decided to rub soothing circles over Varian’s back as they stayed quiet for a while.

Hugo lost track of time as his eyes lingered on the rushing water while Varian nestled in his hold. It felt right to be like this. He felt no need to break the silence as their hearts beating together was all the talking he needed right now. It wasn’t until he noticed that Varian’s breathing had significantly slowed that he realized Varian was nodding off in his arms.

“Come,” he said, a small laugh prominent in his word. “Your bed will be much more comfortable to sleep in.”

Varian hummed, the small tremor of his voice buzzing through Hugo. “I doubt that,” his voice sounded slow with sleep but the humor was certainly there. “Mmm love you.”

Hugo smiled, knowing full well Varian could not see with his face nestled into Hugo’s embrace. “I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Varian had a nightmare in which he dreamed about his friends turning against him, having lost their trust in Varian after he revealed his past to them. This dream ends with Hugo forcing himself onto Varian. In this dream it is made clear that Varian is asexual. This causes conflict because part of his brain hopes that Hugo can fix him, even if what is happening to him is his greatest nightmare. Hugo is awoken by Ruddiger and sees Varian having a nightmare. He wakes Varian up, only for Varian to see him and panic. Varian flees the tent and needs time to calm down. Nuru and Yong were awoken by Varian’s scream but go to bed after it’s clear Hugo’s on the case. Eventually Varian calms down, and Hugo takes him to the river side to talk about his dream. Varian tells Hugo everything except for the truth of his sexuality. They share a moment, speaking of their trust and love for each other. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading (the summary)! A big reveal today! I’m very happy how things are panning out and even more glad you guys are just as stoked about this story as I am.
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments down below, reading your thoughts really makes my day!   
> Until next time! <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Ya'll! Here's a new chapter!  
> Before we start I wanted to address a few things ^^  
> 1\. I owe Lux and Spaceman virtual cookies for guessing Var being ace before me telling! You're both guests I believe, so I couldn't really give you the cookies earlier through DMs （（●´∧｀●））  
> 2\. This story does not break the canon of the series (at least, not in ways that count :P) so no, Varian wasn't abused in any other way that alluded to in the show when he was in prison. just wanted to clarify that.   
> 3\. Yes, yes the title is a pun <(￣︶￣)> (and I'm damn proud of it!)
> 
> Okay, on with the chapter!

The rest of the night, Varian was quite restless. He woke up multiple times, only to hide away in Hugo’s embrace and try to fall asleep again. He awoke again with a start when Hugo suddenly moved away from him. Varian sat up to see Hugo grabbing his glasses.

Hugo turned back towards Varian and frowned in concern. “Hey?” he said.

“Hi,” Varian hated how slurred his voice sounded.

Hugo bridged the distance between them by cupping Varian’s face. “You look tired, why don’t you stay in longer?” Hugo’s thumb rubbed soothingly on Varian’s cheek.

Varian nudged his face further into Hugo’s long and slender hand. “I don’t think I can. Nor that it’ll do much.”

Hugo leaned in for a small peck on Varian’s lips and whispered, his lips ghosting over Varian’s. “Just lay down for a bit, I’ll make something to eat for you, okay?”

Varian smiled, enjoying the closeness between him and Hugo. “Okay, but only if you give me a good kiss before you go.”

A smirk flashed over Hugo’s face. An almost proud gleam shone in his eyes before he closed them and pressed in. They stayed interlocked, lips quietly roaming each other so as not to make any noises for the others, who were undoubtedly waking up as well, to hear. The kiss was short, but none the less passionate in the quiet of the morning. Only a small noise sounded as they parted.

“I love you,” Varian’s whisper was barely above a breath.

Hugo smiled. “I love you too, Stripes,” he whispered back before turning around, and starting to pull off his night clothes.

Varian laid back down, closing his eyes and trying to empty his mind. But every little rustle of Hugo moving about the tent kept Varian very alert. Whenever a sound found his ears, he felt himself being jerked away from his near sleeping state. Hugo leaving the tent did nothing to solve this, though. The sounds now came from outside, and the tent felt oddly empty without Hugo besides him. He could hear Nuru and Yong talking to Hugo in whispers. Hugo was explaining why Varian was still in the tent, and Varian could clearly hear the worry in Nuru’s voice when she asked about last night.

Varian longed to be beside Hugo, to hold him and stay in his embrace, even when his mind was aching to rest and sleep. He tried for a while to sleep, sometimes his thoughts becoming nonsensical as if on the edge of dreaming, but he’d wake up from either noises outside or his own dreams startling him awake. After a while, he gave up with an annoyed huff. Tonight was a loss, and there was no way he could get it back. He’d just have to take an afternoon nap today and go to bed early tonight. Maybe today he’d find some time to investigate what Girda had given him, to get his mind off the tiredness.

Varian got up and eyed the satchel Girda had given him. Through all of yesterday he didn’t even have the time to check the book titles or the labels on the potions. His mind, dull with sleep deprivation, buzzed in excitement. The man had called it homework. Could the books contain information on starting with magic? Or maybe potion making? He let out a long and loud yawn before undressing. Staying in his musty nightshirt would not help him get started with the day.

When he finished getting dressed, he pulled his goggles over his head, before pushing them up to rest on top of his head. He took his gloves too and left the tent. He met the sight of his friends already doing the things that needed to be done. Nuru was using his distiller to get clean water, Hugo was making something on the fire in a small pan. Yong was working on… something _far_ away from the fire. Varian was pretty sure the teen was building some new bombs or fireworks. He had bought some new ingredients in Aberdeen after all.

“Morning,” Nuru was the first to acknowledge Varian. “Feeling better?”

“Morning,” Varian sat down beside Hugo, giving a big and teary yawn. “Not much, but I will.”

Yong shouted a good morning from afar, waving enthusiastically. Varian waved back, smiling at the young boy. Varian turned to watch Hugo stirring whatever was in the pan. It smelled sweet.

“Whatcha doing?” He asked.

“Making breakfast that was supposed to be served in bed,” Hugo said, eyebrows wiggling up and down in suggestion. “Why are you up?”

“Aw, that’s sweet of you,” Varian said, feeling the need to give a peck on Hugo’s cheek. Without a doubt, Hugo had hoped to be rewarded when he brought the food over in the tent, but now in the open he’d have to miss that. “I couldn’t sleep anymore, honestly.”

“Good morning,” an unfamiliar voice sounded, and the group turned to the newcomer standing in their campsite.

It took Varian a long moment to recognize the face he saw. It was the kind man who let him grab firewood last night. He wanted a trade, right?

“Good morning, sir.” Varian quickly got up. “Thanks again for last night.”

“No, no, it was nothing,” the man said as his eyes moved around the campsite, clearly searching for something. “So uhmm, where is that staff of yours?”

Varian tilted his head for a moment, puzzled by the sudden change of subject. “Ehh, what?”

“Your staff. The one you had on you last night. It’s magical, and you’re a magic-user, right?”

Yong left his project to join the conversation, curious as ever. “Yep, he’s a wizard!”

“No, I’m not!” Varian hushed the boy. “Don’t say these things to strangers!”

Hugo just barked a laugh. “He’s not, believe me.”

Varian, feeling a bit flustered, turned his focus back on the kind man. “Yeah, no magic here. But I am an alchemist. Is there something going on that you need a wizard? I can’t provide magic, but maybe something else?”

The man seemed to consider Varian for a moment before he sighed. “Well, I guess it won't hurt seeing if you can help.” he shrugged. “I’m actually the leader of this village,” the man started. “And we’re having some problems with earthquakes. It’s been going for a few months now. Every day, during the day time, we have these earthquakes, and we can’t figure out why. The earth shakes tremendously, but we can’t find any cause, no sign of explosions, or anything. The only thing we’ve figured out that the quakes seem to come from the mountain up there.” The man pointed at the mountain a little out of the village. “But even that, we’re not sure of.”

Varian looked around the group. Could he ask his friends to spend time to help a small village? Hugo seemed deep in thought, pondering possibilities, no doubt. Yong seemed exited, but Nuru seemed worried and small. Varian made a decision. “Have you gathered any more information about the earthquakes? It won’t hurt to see if I can figure something out.”

“Y-yes! Yes, we have, and thank you so much!” The man smiled. “My name is Albert,” the man said, holding out his hand.

Varian shook his hand. “I’m Varian,” he said and turned to gesture at Yong. “This is Yong.” Yong smiled and waved. “This is Hugo.” Hugo did a mock salute with two fingers. “And this is Nuru.” He gestured to the girl sitting behind the distiller last. She hadn’t quite faced the man up till now, keeping her gaze fixed on the distiller.

Albert’s eyes grew to nearly comical proportions. “P-p-p Princess Nuru!?” He quickly sank to one knee to bow deeply. “Your Highness, what are you doing here with these commoners?”

Varian wanted to comment on this, but Nuru beat him to it. “These are my friends and travel companions,” her voice carried a heaviness, and a regal tone with it that the group never really heard before. She rose from her sitting position. “I’d hardly describe them as commoners.”

At this, the man turned into a stuttering mess. “I-I ehh n-no of- of course not. I-I didn’t me-mean any o-offence.”

“It’s alright,” she said, voice cool. “No harm done.”

“Uhm, Hugo?” Yong chimed in, all eyes shifting from the stuttering leader to the young teen. “Is that supposed to smell like that?” He pointed at the small pan, still sitting beside the fire, long forgotten.

“Ack!” Hugo quickly pulled the pan away from the fire, but saw that the assortment of fruits had long gone black, clearly burned far beyond saving. “Aaaah. Varian, your breakfast…”

Varian looked over Hugo’s shoulder at the pan, and shivered at the sickly sweet smell of burned fruits. “It’s okay, Hugo,” he patted the man on the back. “I’ve skipped breakfast before. It’s fine.”

“Oh, no worries. My partner would be happy to supply you with anything you’d like while you work on those quakes,” the man said. “You’re welcome in my house.”

“We should clean up a bit here first,” Nuru said, eyeing the mess that was their campsite. “The distiller isn’t quite done yet either.”

“We’ll be done in no time,” Varian said. “I know where your house is, Albert. We’ll come right when we’re done.”

“Well, we also needed to go to the market for food,” Hugo said, smirking at the man. “I’d take it you won’t let the friends of Princess Nuru work on this important research without some compensation, right? So we can shop freely, I take it?”

“Hugo!” Varian elbowed the older man with a frown. “Don’t exploit Nuru’s position!”

“Hey, can we for once?” Hugo shrugged in annoyance.

Albert shook his head. “It’s fine. Of course, you’ll be free to get anything you need from the market. The welfare of my people is my first priority. We can miss some proceeds in exchange for the safety of the people.”

At his last words, Varian looked back at Albert. First priority? It pulled at his memories of his father. How he put the lives of his villagers at stake to keep the secrets of his past and black rocks a mystery. It somehow felt weird that this absolute stranger suddenly felt much more like a proper leader than his father ever had.

Varian shook his head. What was he even thinking? His father had been a wonderful leader. Just not in that instance. Just one time… one time that really mattered…

Hugo poked at Varian’s arm, gaining his attention in a snap. “What?”

“You’ve been staring off into the distance for a bit. You’re okay?”

“Yeah, I-” he shook his head once more, very quick, his eyes closed. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let's get that pan cleaned before it’s cooked on forever.”

->\/<-

Hugo was looking over Varian’s shoulder at the paperwork the leader of this village had gathered. There was a lot of information there, but Hugo hadn’t been able to find much useful information. They had written down the times when the quakes hit, clearly showing that nearly all activity was in the day time. There was a detailed map of the village and its surrounding lands marking where tears in the ground and other damage were found. But nothing that could really tell them much. The most useful information was that some villagers thought that the trembling was worse in the mountain areas.

Hugo’s eyes shifted from the paperwork towards Varian, who was tugging at his lower-lip. Blue eyes stared at the paper, deep in thought. He couldn’t help but note how beautiful Varian looked, mind working hard, his freckles so distracting. He hadn’t had much of a chance to be close enough to count them during day. He wondered if they would get to the part in their relationship where he could. Where Varian didn’t want to hide the thing that was growing between them, where Varian was open to him about this _thing._ He knew Varian had asked for his patience. And he really tried to be! But it was hard. It felt like he was waiting for an eternity, but it had not even been four days since they had their first, drunk, kiss. Varian was constantly in reach. He was even seeking out intimacy, now. Seeing Varian ruffle his hair in thought just made him want to pick him up, and shower him in kisses like last night.

He shook his head. Patience! He needed to be patient! He sighed, and his eyes found Varian’s face once more. His eyes lingering on the bags underneath his eyes. It looked like he had barely slept at all. Then again, he doubted Varian could of had much of a peaceful sleep after that dream he had.

Big blue eyes turned towards him, and he felt himself sink away in the deepness of the color. They were full of wonder, and question, and Hugo could stare at them the whole day.

“Hugo?”

Hugo snapped out of his musing about Varian’s beauty with a start. He only realized now that the question in his eyes was directed at him. “I- ehhh… What’s up?”

Varian frowned, but not in his angry matter. The smile that appeared right after made him look more amused than anything else. “You were staring at me, shook your head, and sighed. And stared some more.”

He could hear the laughter in Varian’s voice, but Hugo felt the certain burn of a blush creep up. Unwilling to show himself flustered because of his favorite little dork, he proceeded to poke Varian’s bags. Varian gave a noise, a mix of protest, and surprise at the sudden touch so close to his eyes.

“Those bags ruin your face,” he settled on saying, forcing a skeptical look on his face as Varian groaned in complaint.

“Don’t poke at them,” he said, swatting the hand away. “It’s nothing a nap won’t fix.”

Hugo proceeded to pull at Varian’s features, fingers tugging at his cheeks to widen Varian’s face. “And when do you think you’re going to get that nap in, huh?”

“Aw aw aw!” Varian dropped the papers to grab Hugo’s hands. “Staph!”

Hugo let go, and Varian was quick to rub at his now reddened cheeks. A smile grew on Hugo’s lips as Varian pouted at him. How was Varian this freaking cute? “I will rest once we know how to help this town.”

“We’re not going to do this again,” Hugo sighed, far too familiar with the way Varian treated his exhaustion. “Rest, now.”

“It can wait. Helping people can’t.” Varian frowned at Hugo.

Their discussion was cut short by a rumbling sound, quickly followed by the shaking of the building they were in. Both the noise and the shaking subsided quickly. Both Varian and Hugo shared a look before Varian spoke up. “That was far too short.”

“Guys!” Nuru entered the room. “Are you okay? An earthquake just hit.”

The two men nodded. “I think we need to check if the earthquakes are indeed coming from the mountains. I don’t know if this was an oddity, but that was a rather short earthquake.”

“You should rest first,” Hugo said, folding his arms in defiance.

“Hugo, this could be a volcano reactivating! People could die if we don’t help them soon enough!”

Hugo pulled up arms in surrender at Varian’s explosive reaction. “Okay, okay. We’re going to figure something out first.”

“Is everyone here okay?” Albert asked, entering the room, closely followed by his partner and Yong.

“It was a light one, dear,” Robin, the partner of Albert said. “But it might have been a bit of scare for the others. Yong here was startled badly by it.”

“We’re fine,” Hugo informed.

“I think we should try and find where the earthquakes are coming from,” Varian said. “I can build a few seismographs, and place them around to measure the quakes.”

“Built a few seismographs? Varian, that’s going to take a while,” Nuru said, worry clear in her voice. “And where even do you want to place all of them?”

“Well, I can begin with two. One here in the village and one to place in the mountains. That’s where the rumors say the trembles are the worst. It would also be the worst place for them to come from, because that could point to volcanic activity.”

“Volcanic?” Robin asked. “These mountains are… well mountains, not volcanos.”

“Some mountains were volcano’s originally. They could have been inactive for hundreds of years. If they are getting active, they might erupt and destroy everything in this valley. So we need to be sure if that’s the case first.” Varian explained.

“Okay,” Albert nodded, voice determined. “What do you need?”

“I’ll write you a list,” Varian grabbed one of the quills off the table, and started to write on the back of the papers he had been given. “I’ll need Hugo to help me build it. Nuru, if you could contact your father, and inform him of what is going on here. If push comes to shove, we’ll need to evacuate this village, and we need all the help we can get. Yong help Albert and Robin to get these things.”

Both Nuru and Yong nodded. Varian handed the paper to Albert. “I won’t let you down.”

Albert nodded. “Thank you.”

->\/<-

Both Hugo and Varian slaved away at the two seismographs. They didn’t get all the preferred materials. It was a small village, after all. But Varian had experience salvaging parts from common things. Old Corona didn’t have all the things he wanted in the small markets, but he knew how to build his lab anyway.

Of course, his father had helped him, if reluctantly, by buying things from the capital. Though he’d been resistant, he did help. And that was what counted in Varian’s book.

Varian tied off the last knot of the thin string, and stepped back, pushing his goggles back up. “There, all finished.”

“These won’t last too long,” Hugo said, shaking his head. “This was a bit of a hack job.”

“It’s enough for what we need it to do now. If the quakes are not coming from the mountain we can relax a bit and take our time to figure it out.”

“How are things coming along here?” Robin asked, pushing the door open with their foot as they had their hands full with a tray loaded with drinks and some bread.

Varian smiled one of his tired smiles. “We’re done, actually,” he said trying to stifle a yawn.

“Wonderful,” Robin smiled widely. “Now let’s rest a little till my husband is back.” They nodded towards the chairs and placed the tray down at the table. “I made you drinks and some fresh bread.”

“Thanks,” Varian said, dropping himself into one of the chairs. He had noticed the glares Hugo was shooting him. It was obvious that Hugo did not approve of Varian pushing himself. But this was an emergency. He could not let these people fend for themselves when they so obviously couldn’t. They needed his brains.

Varian’s eyes fell upon Hugo’s backpack. He knew Hugo was pretty good at making energy potions. He had seen him use some when they were still on their trails. He knew that if he’d ask, Hugo would just force him to sleep. For how often Hugo used them, he never gave any to the others of the group, saying it wasn’t healthy. But maybe, if Hugo wasn’t paying attention, he could slip one from his bag. Hugo wouldn’t mind, right? He would understand.

Robin handed Varian his drink and he thanked them. “What is Albert doing right now?” Varian asked.

“He’s trying to find people willing to help travel to the mountains. Since Albert and I are in charge here, we don’t often go into the mountains but stay here. So we aren’t much use to guide you.”

“With we, you mean me, right?” Albert asked, entering the room, followed by Nuru, Yong, and two other men.

“Honey,” Robin gave a frown. “I want to help our village as well! I’m just as capable as you to brave the mountains.”

“I know you are. I would never doubt your strength.” Albert gave Robin a quick peck on their cheek. “But if things go wrong, if anything would happen to me, I need you to be here and guide these people. They can’t lose both their leaders.”

“Wait,” Nuru cut in before Robin could really answer. “How dangerous are these mountains?”

“Normally during day time, not really,” Albert answered. “But with these earth quacks they can be very dangerous. Things like pieces of the mountain coming lose or landslides can occur. Besides, if this mountain really is a volcano acting up, there is a chance…” Albert drifted off, not really wanting to say what he feared most. “I just want to be sure.” He concluded.

“But if you never return, all important information will be lost, it will be for naught.”

“Well, that is a risk we have to take,” Varian shrugged, downing the last bit of tea. “There is no better way.”

“We?” Nuru asked, placing her hands on her hips.

Varian frowned at this. “Yes, we.”

Nuru took a breath of air like she was about to say something, only to pause for a moment. “I don’t think there is a need for us to get more involved than we are right now. You’ve build them these machines they need, and they can help themselves now.”

“What?” Varian got up, the confusion in his voice from before replaced by menacing anger. “I doubt they can operate these. They need us.”

“Teach them then,” Nuru took a step back, hands drawn up in a guarded attitude, but didn’t back down in her words. “We can’t go into the mountains if it’s that dangerous.”

“Why? You don’t want to help _your_ people?”

“Of course I’ll do anything in my power to help my people!” Nuru answered back, sounding insulted. “Don’t you dare say otherwise!” she jutted her finger at Varian who only seemed angrier. “But we need to use our heads. We can’t die on these mountains. The whole reason I did those trails would be for naught.”

“You think I’m reckless?” Varian’s words were sharp.

“You were two days ago, when you nearly got eaten by that monster!” Nuru pointed out and Varian looked like he’d been slapped in the face.

“That’s a different story!”

“Is it!?” Nuru’s voice nearly pitched. “You almost died, Varian! You could have died, and then who would have helped me build those towers to help the kingdom!?”

“Is that all I’m good for to you?” The hurt in Varian’s voice was mostly drown out by his anger. “Hah! Am I just a vessel of knowledge for you? All you care about is that project of yours! You don’t even care about this small village!”

“Of course I do, but I _also_ care about my wellbeing and my _life_! You seem far too willing to just throw yourself into anything you can find! You want to die that gladly!?”

“At least I would have died for something instead of sitting safely in my castle watching the world burn!”

“Enough!” Hugo stepped in, both figuratively and literally, taking a physical step between them. “Both of you!” 

Nuru made an exasperated motion towards Varian, her lividness overflowing in the movement. Her silent face of anger spoke louder than words. Varian had obviously crossed a line. No one seemed to be sure where it had come from, but Varian had said some nasty things. They all knew Nuru wasn’t like that; not anymore. The fact she was here was proof enough that she was not a person to sit back and let others solve her problems.

“Varian?” Hugo turned to Varian who was also still fuming. “Why did you say that? You know Nuru isn’t like that.”

“Isn’t she?” he bit back clearly still high on his anger, his voice sounding awfully loud and harsh within the quiet that had settled in the room. He was the only one still raising his voice and it somehow only made him feel more angry.

“No, she’s not.” Yong finally spoke up. To Hugo’s surprise, he sounded firm and confidant in his words. Yong rarely spoke up against Varian.

Varian took a step back as he noticed he was alone in this, anger sliding off his face to make way for something that made Hugo confused. Varian seemed scared for a moment before his anger returned.

“Fine, if you all want to take her side-” Varian’s words cut off, seemingly lost for words in his anger. “Whatever!”

He walked off, and Hugo tried to follow. “Varian! It’s not like that.”

Varian walked out of the room, stomping down the stairs and slamming open the door of the living room. He had wanted to leave the house, but decided he didn’t feel like making a scene outside on the streets. He was pretty certain tears would come soon. He wanted to break something, but knew better and just pulled off his goggles and tossed those across the room instead. He hadn’t noticed that Hugo had followed him until he turned around, and was suddenly face to face with him. “What!?”

“Varian, what has gotten into you?” Hugo tried not to make Varian more angry than he already was. “This is very unlike you.”

“It's-” Hugo saw a flash of fear again before it was hidden by defiance. “It doesn’t matter.” Varian pulled away, and moved to the back of the room, picking up his goggles. He was relieved they weren’t cracked.

It clicked in Hugo’s mind as he watched Varian’s back. Varian had told them his history; his past. He used to live in a village like this, small and remote. And his village had been in trouble too. But no royalty came to help them. The monarchs had betrayed his trust. Varian was lashing out because of his past pain. Because he could see his old home in this villiage. Could see the black rocks in the earthquakes. This was history repeating itself; Varian’s history. And Nuru was doing exactly the same thing Rapunzel had. She was seeing that she was unable to help and going back to the capital with the promise things will get solved somehow. But in Corona, it never got solved. In Corona, everything went wrong.

Varian thumbed the rim of his goggles, feeling a slight dent but put them back on anyways, and wanted to brush past Hugo to leave the room, but Hugo stuck out his arm to stop him from passing him. “Varian, we need to talk.”

Varian seemed to double down on his anger, and pushed the arm away hard. “No we don’t!”

“Yes we do!” Hugo grabbed onto Varian’s arm and pulled him back hard. “You’re acting like you’re back in Old Corona when Rapunzel didn’t help you. When the capital had forsaken you. But that is not what is going on, Varian. Nuru isn’t like that. We know that. _You_ know that.”

The anger completely slipped from Varian’s face, clearing the way for hurt and fear. “But.” His voice wavered.

“Varian you’re reacting out of this place of trauma. You’re back in that time of hurt. You’re afraid these people will be abandoned, will be forgotten. But this is not Old Corona. Nuru wouldn’t leave if she wasn’t sure these people were capable helping themselves.”

Hugo watched as the fear and hurt on Varian’s face dulled with tiredness. It worried Hugo how tired Varian looked right now. This wasn’t a “I’ve been brought back from almost dying and had a long and hard travel and a terrible night of sleep” Kind of tired. This was a bone deep, years of hurt, kind of tired. A tiredness he hadn’t seen on Varian’s features before.

“But what if it’s something completely different? Something we didn’t account for? What if our help could have saved them? We should at least have tried, right?”

Hugo pulled Varian into a hug. One hand found the dark locks and scratched his scalp lightly as Varian’s face hid against his chest. “We can talk to Nuru, _civilly_. If you don’t accuse her of being a lousy royal she might listen to you and agree to help. And even if all fails, we can write down anything Nuru needs to know, and check it out ourselves. That way you’ve kept your promise to help the kingdom and still can check these quakes out. How about that, ey?”

Varian had hugged back, but now loosened his grip to look up at Hugo. “That sounds like a plan. Thank you.”

“Now please refrain from insulting the princess again. It could count as treason here, and you have enough charges of those on your name.” Hugo joked, entangling his fingers with Varian’s.

“Oh shut up! I shouldn’t have told you guys that!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no they had a fight! It isn't always easy to be together 24/7!
> 
> Hope you'll tune in next time!
> 
> (On wards we write!)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick update! ･:*+.\\(( °ω° ))/.:+

Varian’s stomach dropped when he saw Nuru. She still looked upset, but not only angry anymore. Varian hated that he had caused Nuru distress like this. He regretted his words, he really did. Hugo had been right. He had not been arguing with Nuru; he had been arguing with the old image of Rapunzel.

“Nuru?” She had been talking with Robin and Albert, and he hated how she seemed to steel herself at his voice. She did not answer, waiting for him. “I’m sorry.”

Her expression softened instantly. Before Varian could read too much into it, Hugo placed a hand on top of his head. “This goof was afraid history would repeat itself.”

Something seemed to click inside of Nuru’s mind and her eyes suddenly shone with understanding and condolence. “Oh, Varian,” she bridged the distance between them and grabbed his hands. “This place is similar to Old Corona, is it not? You’re afraid the same would happen here?”

Varian nodded. “I was still out of line, though. I’m sorry for the things I said.”

“So am I, Varian.” Nuru tightened her grip on his hands. “I said some nasty things to you too.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Nuru frowned at this. “Well, I do. I should have kept calm. That behavior was not suitable for a princess after all,” she said in a mock posh voice.

A small laugh escaped from Varian’s lips. “I guess not,” he said with a smile. “But then again, you’re not your average princess.” Nuru smiled back at him. “But I do feel like I need to help here.”

Nuru’s smile lessened. “I figured. You were never the one to leave people who were in need of help.”

“I’ll write down anything you need to know to build those towers,” Varian pressed. “I have the book from the Eternal Library with me. It contains the spells you need. You don’t need me. Not really. I can leave all of that with you, and then you can go home and stay safe so you can help the kingdom before the next meteor shower comes.”

“I-” Nuru looked away, words leaving her. “Oh, Varian,” she said after a moment of silence, hitting Varian’s shoulder. “You selfless prick. Of course, I won’t just let you run off by yourself. I guess I might have overestimated the situation. I talked with Robin, and they told me that the mountains aren’t really that much more dangerous. They also told me that Albert found two men who know the mountains really well and know how to avoid the dangerous spots.”

Varian stared for a moment. “S-so you’re coming along?”

Nuru smiled. “Yeah!”

Yong gave a whoop of victory before shouting. “Road trip, road trip!”

“Hasn’t the last two years been a constant road trip?” Hugo asked, pushing down on Yong’s head as if to stop him shouting.

“I knooow,” the boy dragged the word. “But we’re going to seek knowledge and climb a mountain, and I thought we wouldn’t do something this big again, but here we are!”

“Always the enthusiast,” Varian smiled as he pushed Hugo’s hand off of the boy. “Now that it’s settled that we’re going to climb the mountain, we better get ready. We should pack some supplies, just to be sure.”

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” Hugo said, turning towards their backpacks.

“We shouldn’t pack too heavily,” Nuru said. “We don’t want to weigh ourselves down too much. Want to be able to hurry back if the worst-case scenario does happen.”

“Right.” Hugo opened his bag. “We can leave the things we don’t need back here,” he said as he started to take out some of his heavy belongings.

Yong, Nuru, and Varian joined Hugo in emptying their backpacks. Varian eyed the satchel Girda had given him, and he had clipped on this his backpack for traveling. If anything, he wanted it with him, so he decided to bring it along. He looked beyond his belongings and saw a growing stack of stuff gathered in piles. All four of them had accumulated a great deal of things over time. They had Prometheus to carry the heavy load after all, but he would not be able to make the climb. They traveled mainly through valleys because of Prometheus, after all.

“Having a hard time parting with your stuff?” Hugo asked, prodding Varian. “Or do you have things you want to hide in there?”

Varian flushed at the mere thought of what Hugo was implying. “What!? No!” He swatted at Hugo’s hand. “I was just lost in thought, that’s all.”

The goofy smile slid off of Hugo’s face, a frown forming instead. “Are you okay, Goggles?”

Varian simply smiled at him. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, turning back to his bag and starting to remove everything and anything he didn’t need. “Just a bit tired, I guess.”

Varian could see the frown deepen into worry from the corner of his eyes. He thought Hugo would press on, ask more, or maybe even suggest to go to sleep after all. But after a moment of silence, he turned back to his own bag.

Hugo was the first to finish with his belongings and started to help Yong. Varian watched him for a moment before his eyes slid towards the stuff Hugo had removed. His eyes landed on a handful of potion bottles he recognized as Hugo’s energy potions. Hugo wouldn’t miss one, right? And if he did, he’d just help Hugo to make a new one. Maybe he could even improve them with Girda’s book.

Varian took the opportunity to quickly swipe one of the potions as Hugo was preoccupied with carefully wrapping some of Yong’s explosive ingredients. “I need those!” Yong complained.

“Not this much, you don’t! You want to blow up the entire mountain?” Hugo put the wrapped ingredients away.

“We’re not throwing it away, Yong,” Nuru provided in a much kinder voice. “You’ll get it back when we return.”

“Fine,” Yong huffed in disappointment.

Varian stuffed the potion away while the group was distracted by Yong. He’d drink it before leaving when no one was watching. No one needed to know. It would only make them worry. There was no need nor time for that. They had to make sure this village was safe. After that, there would be time enough to rest.

->\/<-

To the group’s relief, their journey through the mountains was an easy one. They only had one earthquake while scaling the mountain and no one was harmed. The group, consisting of Varian, Hugo, Nuru, Yong, Albert, and the two guides, made their way up the slopes rather quickly.

“I think we’re far enough into the mountains for a good measurement,” Varian said, looking down to see the village in the valley below. “So if we can find a place where the ground is level.”

“And how are we going to find such a place?” Hugo asked. “My eyes are sharp, but not that sharp.”

Varian pulled a long rod from his backpack, holding it up like it was the solution. The group frowned at him. “It’s a level, guys,” Varian explained like it was as normal as rain falling from the heavens. “Come on, it has been around for more than a hundred years.”

Yong took it from Varian’s hand and looked at it with awe. “How does it work?”

“Simple, really,” Varian started matter-of-factly. “This piece of wood had a glass embedded in it. As you can see.” Varian pointed. “There is liquid in the glass, so when the wood stands on something level, the small air bubble in it will be in the middle of it. See, there are lines on it. So when the bubble is between those lines, it means that whatever the level is on is actually level.”

“Woah!” Varian could practically see stars in Yong’s eyes. “Why aren’t we using this everywhere?”

Varian took it from Yong and handed it to Nuru, who seemed very curious as well. “That’s what I wonder as well. They invented this in France in 1661, yet we barely use it. I personally think it could improve our building processes so much.”

“And how, if I may ask, did you get your hands on this?” Hugo asked, peering over Nuru’s shoulder as she showed the two guides and Albert.

“I made it myself.” Varian shrugged. “It was a pain to make the first one, but once I got that one down, it wasn’t too hard, really. The science at play here is simple but genius! It was a bit of a passion project of mine, to be honest.”

Seeing Varian talk about this level thing made Hugo remember how smart Varian really was. It was so easy to forget that Varian was brilliant behind those baby blues. Seeing him talk with such passion about something like this, well, it made Hugo feel warm inside. He wanted Varian to continue talking about it. He wanted to hear all the details about how Varian managed to build something like this. He wanted to know how and where Varian found this information. Yet, he did not want to hear to learn. He wanted to hear because Varian’s mind was so attractive to him. And seeing Varian this passioned, this interested in something made his heart flutter. The shine in his eyes as he talked about all the possibilities with such a device, the laugh in his words, the slightly sped up speaking in his enthusiasm, it lit a fire inside Hugo. Varian was just downright hot to Hugo like this and, shit, he wanted more!

Sadly for Hugo, Varian eventually caught himself rambling and cut himself off. “S-sorry. That must have been boring to listen too,” he scratched the back of his head, the flush not only visible but readable in his voice. “Anyways, let’s try and find a flat surface to put the seismograph on.”

The group walked around to find any place that could be a potential candidate. They tried the level here and there, but nothing was level enough. After a long while searching, Yong found something and called over the group. “Look!” he pointed at an unnatural flat surface that ran right into the side of the mountain. And where it ended the the rock seemed more like a covered over cave in than a typical mountain face.

Varian’s eyes fell onto something that looked oddly like a pillar. It was very brittle looking and had clearly decayed a lot. He had barely recognized it as a man-made structure if it wasn’t for some remaining pieces of smooth curves. The location was odd too, kind of sticking away from the mountain’s normal formations.

“What is this place?” Varian asked, placing down the level. His eyes widen as he saw that the ground was level… far too level. “This is man-made.”

Albert and the two guides looked around, their eyes just as wide as the rest of the group’s. “I don’t know. This is not on any of our maps.”

“We haven’t found this before.” One of the guides explained. “We don’t often climb this side of this particular mountain.”

“Well, it looks like it leads somewhere. Could there be a hidden entrance to something?” Hugo asked, eying the odd rock formation. Plants and greens were growing between the rocks, but he could see the wall looked odd compared to the rest around it.

“We can blow it open and have a look!” Yong exclaimed happily, dynamites ready in his hands. “I’ve made new and even stronger ones this morning!”

“Yes,” Varian said, his voice like he was coaxing Yong. He placed both hands on Yong’s shoulders. “You’ve made some wonderful additions to your arsenal, but we’re on a mountain that has not only faced a lot of earthquakes but also might be a waking volcano. So I think your best might be a bit too much for it to handle.”

“Heh,” Yong sounded proud. “I guess you’re right. I brought lighter stuff too.”

“I knew we could count on you, Yong!” Varian smiled at Yong, patting his shoulder in delight. “Let’s set some up then?”

“Yeah! Time to blow our way in!” he shouted in enthusiasm. The same kind he always had when he was allowed to be destructive.

The group usually tried to keep his explosions to a minimum. It wasn’t like Yong was completely reckless with his fireworks anymore. He just tented to overdo it. He once made a tunnel cave-in on them when trying to blast a way through. As bashful as he was, when kept in check, the boy was wonderfully handy with his self-made explosives. He did save them multiple times with them before.

Varian helped Yong set up the explosives as Hugo guided the rest to a safe distance, making sure they could hide away from any flying debris.

“Okay, ready?” Varian asked Yong.

“Yes! Let’s light the fuse!” Yong did as he said, and the two ran for cover. Only seconds after the two hid away behind a rock formation, the explosion went off. The rocks flew away with a powerful blast, leaving a party opened entrance.

The group gathered back at the new entrance. They peered inside, seeing nothing but parts of the marble floor where the light from outside hit.

There was a moment of silence as they all wondered if this was the best step forward.

“Shouldn’t we put up the seismograph? That’s what we came here for, right?” Nuru asked.

“Yes, yes, of course.” Varian grabbed his backpack that he had put down, carefully lifting the machine from his pack and placing it on the floor. “So, we’ll just have to wait for an earthquake to hit.”

Yong and Hugo were both stared into the dark entrance. “Is that going to take long?” Yong asked, already sounding bored.

“I don’t know, Yong,” Varian said, sitting cross-legged before the seismograph. “The amount of earthquakes do change, but from what I gathered from the number has been increasing the last few days. So we probably don’t have to wait too long.”

“Can we explore the cave while we wait?” Yong asked.

“You can. I should stay with the seismograph. We don’t want to miss a reading,” he said, waving off Yong, and preparing the paper in the machine.

Yong looked over at Hugo, who just shrugged. They both entered the cave, Hugo holding one of his vials with glowing substance. The two of them had barely entered when a loud rumbling sounded from inside the cave. The two jumped back out only to fall to the ground as the earth quaked underneath them.

Nuru and Albert ducked as the two guides grabbed onto the wall to hold themselves up. Varian busied himself with carefully pulling the paper through the seismograph as the rumblings continued. Once again, it stopped rather quickly. A loud and almost unearthly sounding noise came out of the cave, startling the group.

“W-w-what was that?” Yong asked as Hugo helped him back to his feet.

“That didn’t sound like earth being displaced,” Varian said, looking quite disheveled himself.

“Nor like gas escaping.” Hugo filled in.

“It sounded alive,” said Albert. “Like a growl.”

“Or a cry of sorts,” Nuru said.

Varian looked down at the paper, telling him what he deep down already knew. “This wasn’t a normal earthquake. Earth doesn’t give these kinds of readings.”

Albert sat down beside Varian to have a look on the paper.

“Did it feel like a normal earthquake to any of you?”

There was a silence in the group before they all slowly came to the same conclusion. Nuru shook her head and the rest of the group followed suit. “No, not quite,” she said.

“It was too jerky. Not quick and spiking like an explosion, and not slow and steady as if it were earth moving. This was something else entirely.” The group watched Varian quietly for a moment before he continued. “The noise came from inside. Yong and Hugo reacted first, they heard it first, so it came from inside… well, whatever this entrance leads to.”

“Could there be something inside that is causing the earthquakes?” Albert asked.

“It seems like it,” Varian answered, a hand finding his chin once again, thinking hard.

“It sounded alive,” Nuru pointed out, clearly not thrilled about finding whatever was strong enough to quake the earth.

“It doesn’t have to be. It could have been mechanical. There is only one way to find out.”

“What if it’s dangerous,” Albert asked.

“We can leave if it gets too dangerous,” Hugo said.

“You said that last time.” Nuru narrowed her eyes on him. “That didn’t go too great, now did it.”

“Are we going to do this again?” Yong complained loudly.

“Wait,” Varian said before Nuru and Hugo could start the argument he and Nuru already had about two hours ago. “Okay, let’s all just take a breather. This situation is very different from last time. One we’re a larger group, two we don’t even know what the threat is, if there is at all a threat. Let’s all just calm down and think about it.”

The group fell silent for a moment again before Varian spoke up once more. “Okay, let’s gather the facts that we know. For example; whatever is making that noise, and presumably the shaking, is inside here,” he said, pointing at the entrance with his thumb.

“We don’t know what’s inside,” Nuru added.

“We know that it hasn’t come out as of yet. Even after blowing up the caved in part,” Yong provided.

“If the quakes are indeed caused by whatever is inside, it has been there for months, nearly a year, if not more,” Albert added.

“And it didn’t do anything for as long as we have records,” one of the guides noted.

“It made a lot of noise,” Yong said. “Oh, and there was the noise before the earthquake hit.”

“Yeah, it didn’t sound like the rumbling we heard back in the village. There was something more to it.” Hugo held onto his chin, somewhat mimicking Varian.

“So from all that we can assume that it was somehow activated or only arrived when the quakes started happening.” Varian stared at the paper of the seismograph. “Jerky movements… activated or dormant… sudden start… noises…” he muttered

“How much do you know about this mountain?” Hugo asked the guides. “You’ve never found this place before, right?”

“Right,” one answered.

“And never found anything similar?” Hugo continued.

“No,” the other one answered and they both shook their heads. “But we’ve scaled the mountain quite a few times. I think the chance of more of these kinds of spots being on the mountain is rather small.”

“The cave-in looks much older than a year,” Varian said. “So something could not have entered through here, if they only got in a year ago.”

“And surely nothing alive can live for so many years only to awaken now, right?” Albert said, his voice clearly carrying the hope that someone would confirm his assertion.

“Wouldn’t it have starved?” Yong said. “I don’t think that it’s alive in there.”

“These are all good points,” Varian said. “But we do have to be aware that we’re speculating. With very little confirmed facts too. We can’t say for sure.”

“But what live thing could cause a mountain to shake?” Nuru asked.

At this, Varian sighed. “I don’t know. In the end of it all, we don’t know. But the fact that it’s most likely not alive… would suggest that it’d be safe to carefully check it out, right?”

Nuru thought for a moment. “Did we bring enough weapons to fight? I mean, what if it’s an automaton or something? Can we defend ourselves?”

“I have my sword.” Hugo held up a few glass balls, filled with chemicals. “And a handful of chemistry bombs.”

“I brought some fireworks, but no ingredients to make new ones. But yeah, I’ve got a bunch, and also, the REALLY strong ones,” The glee in Yong’s voice over the strong explosives was almost scary.

“I’ve got my staff and sword,” Varian said. “I’ve only got a few refills for my staff. I left most down in the village.”

“We’ve got our machetes,” the guide said.

“I brought one short sword as well, though I’m not much of a fighter,” Albert explained. “Don’t expect me to slay monsters or anything.”

“I brought my rapier,” Nuru noted.

“I think we’re equipped well enough to handle something and make a quick escape,” Hugo said. “I say, let’s check it out.”

“Okay, but don’t forget to be careful,” Nuru said.

The group prepared their weapons, ready to fight if needed.

“We brought torches,” one of the guides said.

“let’s skip those, for now, okay?“ Varian pushed the torch down the man was holding up. “We don’t know if these hallways are filled with gas. Open fire is a risky move. We have lights that don’t have a flame or a heat source.”

The two men nodded and put away the torches. Varian took out his staff and Hugo some of his alchemy balls, handing one to each person.

Ready for whatever the caves could hold, the group braced themselves and entered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you guys ready for some adventure? We’re starting the dungeon crawling next time~  
> Let me know what you think in the comments below <3  
> Until next time!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I have another update for you all! <3  
> But first, I wanted to say happy asexual awareness week everyone! I hope you feel free to celebrate your sexuality and maybe discover something new about asexuality. I myself am asexual (and somewhere on the aromantic spectrum) and started writing this story more for myself than to actually post it anywhere. I just REALLY wanted a love story where someone was struggling with the same things that I have and still am sometimes. (And in a way, I hope to find my own Hugo one day.) After letting some people know about this fic I got encouraged to post in anyways and I’m very happy I did! It warms my heart to see people enjoying a story that has a character in it with whom they can relate on a deeper level, something I’ve had to miss growing up. So again, thank you for reading this story and sharing your stories with me! If you’d like to talk to me about (your) asexuality, please feel free to DM me or seek me out on discord (I think most people that read this are in the same 7k discord servers as I am. My user name is Lily (or a kind of lily, yeah I’m a flower nerd)) I’d love to hear your stories, maybe help you out if you struggle or just answer some questions you might have about this pretty unknown sexual orientation.  
> And if anything else, just enjoy my favorite group doing some good old fashion dungeon crawling! ;)

Varian let his hand glide over the walls as the group walked in through the crumbled opening and into a space that looked like a partially caved-in hallway. To his surprise it was smooth and cool under his fingers. Unlike the outside, the inside looked perfectly intact and preserved through an undoubtedly long time. Bringing his staff close he saw that the high reaching walls were made of light colored marble. His eyes dipped down to see a similar stone used there. This had been an expensive building. A castle maybe?

The group gasped in unison as everyone awed at the marble walls and floors. It was not the sight they had expected when entering this hidden entrance.

“Does this ring a bell for you, Nuru?” Varian asked, leading the way, his staff the brightest source of light in the hallway. 

“Not at all,” she answered. “How about you, Albert?”

“Believe me, no one in the village knows about this place,” He said.

It didn’t take them long to arrive at the end of the hallway. Its mouth opened into a chapel-like room. The round walls reached even higher than the ones in the hallway and arched into a beautiful deep blue dome decorated with stars and constellations. Whatever was used to paint the stars made them shimmer and shine as if they were actual stars in the night sky above. All the stars together reflected the low light enough to make the chapel glow. The room itself seemed split into six parts by big cream colored columns. Four of these were arched and decorated with the different star signs, shining far more brightly than the other stars. In front of the star, signs were pedestals, one for each arch. A fifth pedestal sat in the very center of the room.

The arch on the far side of the room held a closed door. Looking up and around as they entered it was easy to guess the arch they were walking through had a similar door that was already slid opened into the right wall. The closed door could presumably be opened in a similar manner.

Varian was quick to walk up to the middle pedestal while the rest of the group looked around the room. “This is breathtaking,” Nuru said, eyes glued to the roof of the dome. “I’ve never seen a building like this.”

“What is this place?” Yong asked, inspecting the closed door and pushing to see if it opened. It did not.

“It must be old if no one knows about it,” Hugo said walking past the four empty pedestals in the arches. “Is this a puzzle?”

Hugo looked up from his spot in the room towards Varian who was inspecting the middle pedestal without touching it. He saw how color suddenly drained from his face, fear clear as Varian stepped back from it. “Varian?”

Varian’s eyes moved towards Hugo in an instant, still wide with fear. “This place… it’s _really_ old.”

Hugo walked over to the middle to have a look at whatever spooked Varian. His eyes landed on four small marble slabs and he raised his eyebrows in confusion. Whatever was engraved on the slabs was unreadable to him. Was it a code? “What makes you say that?”

“That language,” Varian gestured to the four slabs. “Has been a dead language for thousands of years,” Hugo noticed how Varian was trembling. “It’s a language from the time when the Sundrop and Moonstone came down from the heavens.”

“What?” Nuru was the first to speak up as Hugo just stared at Varian.

“It’s the same as the script we found on the scroll about the Sundrop and Moonstone. It’s the same language I translated to find all the incantations.”

“You translated a dead language?” Albert asked.

“That’s not important right now!” Varian barked. “This could mean this place, those earthquakes, it could all be tied to the Dark Kingdom!”

“So?” Nuru asked, carefully. “It has to come from somewhere. Umbra is far older than Nesdernia, it’s not that odd to find structures from before my kingdom existed.”

“This could be dangerous,” Varian lowered his voice to a hoarse sound, arms wrapping around himself. “This could be part of the Moonstone.”

“Didn’t the Moonstone create black rocks?” Hugo asked, placing a comforting hand on Varian’s shoulder. He wished he could just hug him right now. “This place doesn’t have anything black, it’s all cream and deep blue.”

Varian took a deep and stuttering breath. “Y-yeah you’re… right.” Varian looked towards Hugo. “I might be a bit paranoid I guess.”

“Well, we know to get out when your hair glows I guess,” Hugo said, bumping his fist against Varian’s shoulder.

Varian stared at Hugo in confusion. “What?”

“Your hair.” Hugo pointed at his own as if Varian didn’t understand the words he spoke.

“No, I understand that. But what do you mean by my hair _glowing_?”

At this Hugo sported a look of realization. “Right! You wouldn’t have seen that I guess.”

“Seen what?” Yong asked before Varian could.

“Well, when that el- well that potion maker tried to free your magic, your hair glowed where your stripe is,” Hugo explained. “It stopped glowing when you broke free from that trance-like state you were in.”

“Cool!” Yong said as Varian just stared into nothingness, clearly taken aback with the new piece of information.

“So, for now, let’s figure this place out,” Nuru said.

Varian shook his head as if to get his thoughts to leave his mind. “Right, right.”

“So what do these signs mean?” Hugo asked, pointing at the pedestal in the middle of the room.

“Oh,” Varian looked at them again. “Easy. They say; fire, water, air and earth,” he said, pointing at the respective slabs without hesitation.

The group took a moment to look around the room once more. “I don’t see it,” Albert said after a moment of silence.

“What do stars have to do with the elements?” Yong asked.

“Stars!” Nuru suddenly said. “Of course! These are star signs on the walls,” she looked around the room. “They are separated in their elemental groups.”

“Elemental groups?” Hugo asked. “What are you talking about.”

“Star signs are separated by elementals. This door has Aries, Leo and Sagittarius above it. They’re fire signs. This one has the water signs; Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. This one the air signs; Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. The last one has the earth signs; Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn.” Nuru explained, pointing at the doorways.

“Wait why is Aquarius not a water sign?” Yong asked, but was shushed by Hugo.

“So we simply have to place the slabs on the right pedestals?” Hugo asked.

“I guess so,” Nuru said, eyeing the archways covered with stars.

“Wait,” Varian said. “Before we do so, the order of the placement might be important. Would you say there is an important order to them, Nuru?”

“Oh good point,” Hugo chimed in. “Rather be extra careful then accidentally setting off traps.

“Oh, well, uhm. There isn’t really an order to them other than the times of year. But that order is just a cycle of the elements.” Nuru said. “So I don’t think it matters too much. How about we place the element of today’s sign first?” the group nodded and Nuru looked down at her dress. “Today belongs to Virgo,” she said. “So that means earth.”

Varian grabbed the corresponding slab and handed it to Nuru. She placed it on the right pedestal, the slab fitting snugly into the indent present. Nuru turned around to receive the next slab.

“Next sign would be Libra, so that is air.” Varian handed her the slab that said air and she placed it, once again fitting perfectly. “Next is Scorpio, a water sign.” Varian once again handed her a slab. While she placed it she continued. “After Scorpio comes Sagittarius. That’s a fire sign.”

Varian handed her the last slab and it too fit perfectly. As the slab settled the door started to rumble before slowly sliding opening before their eyes.

“Wow!” Yong gasped loudly as the rest of the group gaped soundlessly.

The door gave way to show a hallway that resembled the one they had just entered through. The group eyed each other before Varian took the lead and stepped into the new hallway. The rest followed suit.

The hallway stretched on and slightly curved until they reached a round room at the end of it nearly identical to the one before. This time it was not decorated with stars but one lone, full moon set in the highest point of the dome. It glowed more brightly than the stars had done, much like a full moon at night would. The room was once again parted in six arches, one holding a door and another holding something that looked like a script that had been broken into many pieces. There were no pedestals this time.

“Why does everything look so similar?” Yong asked out loud.

“I think to make it harder to navigate through this building,” Nuru answered, her eyes scanning the new room.

“I think this is another puzzle,” Albert said as he looked at one of the walls. Both Varian and Hugo stepped beside him to have a look too. “See here? I think you can move those symbols like puzzle pieces.”

Varian narrowed his eyes at the script. It was definitely the same language, and he did recognize all the symbols. But they were jumbled and random. How could he possibly know what they had to say?

“What does it say?” Hugo asked.

“Well, I do recognize the words,” he slipped his fingers over the pieces like he could connect with them better through touch. “But they’re all just lose words. Nonsensical, really.”

“Anything about a moon in there?” Hugo eyed the script like he could read at least a little of it.

“No, but there is the word earthly.”

“You’d think the moon had something to do with it, since it’s such a prominent part of this room, ” Nuru said, eyes scanning the dome, finding nothing else but the eerily glowing moon. “What words are there?”

“Uhm, destiny, break, end, free is here twice, spirit, decay, the, set, wither-” Varian pointed at the corresponding symbols as he translated but suddenly halted. “I- I think I know what order it’s supposed to be in.”

“That’s good,” Albert sounded delighted but noticed the look on Varian’s eyes. “Isn’t it?”

Varian scanned the puzzle pieces once more, worries clear in his eyes. “It can form the moon’s decay incantation.”

At this the room fell silent. Sudden realization sunk in and turned to dread. If that truly was the answer to the puzzle, which said out loud did sound right, Varian was right to link this place to the Moonstone. But was it a bad thing? Did they still need to fear the moon and her powers when the Moonstone was long gone from earth?

“I’m not sure if it will trigger the effect of the actual incantation,” Varian said. “It could kill us.”

“What puzzle would reward the solver with death?” Yong asked.

“I don’t think these puzzles were created to kill, but rather to keep people out,” Hugo hummed. “Don’t you think so too, Varian?”

Varian sighed. “I guess,” Varian turned back to the puzzle. “Just be ready to run, okay?”

The group watched in quiet suspense as Varian slowly moved around the words with his fingertips. He would move one up towards an empty slot so he could grab another word and bring it to the newly opened slot. Varian slowly muttered the incantation under his breath as he moved the pieces around. After a bit he moved the last word into place and stepped back in anticipation. Varian let out a loud sigh of relief when the far side door simply rumbled and opened for the group.

“See, nothing bad happened,” Hugo punched Varian’s shoulder playfully. “They’re just puzzles.”

Varian forced a smile. “Yeah,” he mustered a weak laugh. “Just puzzles.” He quietly followed the group through the new hallway.

The group found a room, once again very similar to the last two rooms. This time it was decorated with a sun, glowing a pale yellow from above. The opposite door in the room was already open to the surprise of the group.

“Someone already solved this one?” Yong asked as he eyed the open door.

“Could be,” Hugo shrugged. “But how come the doors before this room were closed? Shouldn't the way here be solved too?”

“Why is the next hallway so dark?” Nuru peered at the entrance. “Up till now they were all dimly lit by the paints used for decoration.”

“Good point,” Varian said, stepping forward to the door. “Maybe opening the door isn’t the puzzle for this room.” he held out his staff and slowly moved it through the door, either expecting the light of his staff to light up the pathway beyond or for the door to snap shut. Neither happened.

“Huh?” the group awed in unison as the tip of the staff seemed to disappear the second it moved beyond the threshold of the door. Varian pulled it back in reflex, thinking he just lost the tip of his staff, only to find it intact. The light of his staff filled the room once again like it had just been introduced into the room. Varian took a cautious step forward, reaching into the dark with his arm. He watched with big eyes how his hands seemed to disappear like it would have done when plunged into dark, muddy water. It didn’t feel like anything as he moved his arm around. He simply couldn’t see his hand through the thick layer of darkness. It must have been magical darkness.

“D-do you feel anything, Varian?” Nuru asked.

“No,” Varian said, pulling his hand back. “It’s like the darkness is too thick.”

“Not even the light of your chemicals can penetrate it,” Hugo hummed. “What could cause such darkness?”

Yong looked up to the sun on the ceiling. “Maybe the absence of the sun?” he thought out loud. “Could we bring the sunlight inside, somehow?”

Varian looked up to the top of the dome as well. The sun felt familiar to him. It was similar to the symbol used for Corona, the sun’s rays splayed in the same style. His eyes dipped back down, scanning the area. He was certain there must be a way to either answer the puzzle or at least a clue as to what to do next.

“Do any of you see something that could be part of the puzzle?” Varian asked.

The group looked around them, but they all came up with a no. The group lapsed back into thought, thinking hard on a solution.

“Maybe we should just step through the doorway?” One of the guards asked. “Like a leap of faith kind of thing.”

“Maybe,” Varian said. “But I don’t see how the sun is a clue for that.”

The guard simply shrugged. “I don’t know, just a thought.”

Varian turned to Hugo. “Feel like helping me potentially fall to my death?” he asked in a jokingly manner.

“Only if my role is to save you from uncertain death,” Hugo answered with a smile.

“Hold me, will you?”

“Of course!” Hugo grabbed the hand Varian stuck out towards him. His grip was firm and so was Varian’s grip on his arm. Nuru and Yong were quick to step beside Hugo to help out if needed. The three guards and Albert did as well.

Varian carefully moved one foot through the darkness and placed it down, trying to get a feel for a floor. To his relief he found solid ground on the same height as the room he was in now. He cautiously put his foot down flat, slowly moving more weight towards it, until he had his complete weight on it. When Varian didn’t drop down into the darkness, a sense of relief moved through the room, and Nuru sighed audibly.

Varian moved further, dipping more of his body past the threshold. He firmly kept one foot out in the light, arm linked firmly with Hugo’s as he moved himself into the darkness. He didn’t know why, but he expected to see something when he moved his head into the darkness, but instead he saw nothing. He couldn’t see the parts of his body that were in the darkness, nor the part of his body that was still outside. He moved his free hand towards himself, bringing it as close as he could to his eyes, but saw nothing. The darkness was simply blinding. There was no way they could navigate through this place without _any_ sight.

He sighed, ready to step back when he thought of something. “Maybe...” he started, wondering for a second if even sound could penetrate this impossible darkness. Hugo’s confirming hum dispelled that question quickly. “Maybe the puzzle needs a vocal input.”

“You’re not seeing anything?” Nuru asked. Of course they didn’t see what he did. Or what he didn’t see.

“No, I can’t even see my own hand. The darkness is all-consuming,” Varian answered back. “I don’t think we could work through this. But I have an idea.”

The group stayed silent, waiting for Varian to continue.

Varian cleared his throat and started to sing, his voice loud and clear. “Flower gleam and glow.” As the first word left his lips a bright, warm, yellow light burst into existence. Varian broke off his words to hide behind his hand, the light blinding after the darkness.

The group behind him gasped, as the light burst into life. But as soon as Varian stopped speaking it faded out. So Varian started again. “Flower gleam and glow,” This time he was ready for the light. It returned as suddenly as before, and now he could see paintings of yellow flowers on the walls. The hallway was similar to the ones they had already been through. The only exception were the walls decorated from top to bottom with drawings of the sundrop flower nested amongst other greenery. “Let your powers shine.” Now that they could see the hallway the rest of the group stepped in as well.

Varian stepped forward, moving to where it was still covered in darkness. “Make the clock reverse,” he stepped further and the glow reached further as well, more flowers lighting up at his words. “Bring back what once was mine.” The group followed him through the hallway.

“Heal what has been hurt, change the fates’ design,” as he moved further down the hallway he saw that, unlike previously, it didn’t end into a new chapeled room but instead into a wide and open space. The room was circular like the other ones but it had a gaping hole in the middle. If they had walked it blindly, they might have fallen down. Instead of forward, the path lead to the side of the room, and a winding stair heading down. They couldn’t see the bottom as it was still wreathed in darkness.

“Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine,” Varian lead the group down the stairs, the flowers ahead of them slowly glowing into life. “What once was mine.”

Varian expected the rest of the flowers to glow as he finished the incantation. They did not, instead, they faded back to darkness as soon as he stopped, causing the group to halt right away.

“I guess I have to keep repeating the incantation,” Varian said. “Flower gleam and glow.”

The flowers near them lit up once more. Varian kept repeating the song he had only heard once, but read multiple times. He couldn’t help but hear Rapunzel's voice as he sung the words of the remembered melody. It made him think back to the conversation they had yesterday. It made him remember how they talked about forgiveness, and it made him realize how the memory of Rapunzel was a gentle and kind one. Her voice in his head sounded warm and soothing. His mind brought up happy memories, both old and new. He had forgiven her. She had not made up completely for all the things she had done wrong, for all the ways she had failed him, but that wasn’t needed, and not something he expected her to do. Yet he found himself fond of her, comfortable in his forgiveness towards her. Did she feel the same about him? Did her mind fill with happy memories about him whenever she thought about him? Or were they of him telling her that he wouldn’t stop until she suffered as much as he had. Varian cringed at the thought of his own words.

Before he could move too deep into his musings about Rapunzel and his history with her, they reached the last steps. The flowers at the top of the stairs had long faded, making it impossible to guess the height of the room but considering the amount of steps they had taken down, it was quite high.

As they reached the middle of the room, they found a crystal that lit up and glowed the same color as the flowers scattered around on the walls and floor. As Varian continued the song it slowly grew into a much brighter glow until it seemed to reach its limit, and suddenly the entire room lit up around them. They all looked around, seeing the gigantic room, filled with glowing flowers and drawings of nature. It was stunning and breathtaking.

Varian noticed that his staff finally glowed again like it used to, casting colorful light around him. The magical darkness was gone.

“This is impressive,” Nure said, as she looked around. “What could we possibly find at the end of these puzzles?”

The rumbling of a door opening sounded from behind the group. They turned around to see a new path opening up for them. “Let’s find out,” Hugo said as he smiled in anticipation.

When they entered the new room, the biggest by far, the first thing that grabbed their attention was the gigantic, silvery, stone dragon statue taking up nearly all the space in the room, curled up as if to sleep. The room seemed to stretch quite far beyond the statue and led up to an elevated place. The length of the room and the ornate detailing along the walls made it seem like the inside of a church. Pillars reached incredibly high and the rounded roof, like in the other rooms, was a dark blue. It was decorated with the sun, the moon and stars. Along the top of the walls wear squared holes that had rock penetrating through it, like the mountain was invading the space.

There seemed to be shadows of paintings on the walls but they were hard to make out because the walls were badly damaged. It was odd, the damage in long shallow lines, like a huge animal had used this place as a scratching pole.

With that observation Varian realized something. While the rest of the group walked in, gazing in awe at the new room it dawned on Varian.

“Run,” his breath left him at the sheer thought of the statue being the source of the damage. The thought that it was not made from stone after all.

There was a moment of silence as the group looked back at him. But the question in their eyes was answered the moment the dragon stirred from its position. The gigantic beast rose to its claws and its head turned towards them.

“RUN!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, commenting and leaving kudos! You guys are giving this gall some LIFE! It really helps to see you’re all invested in this story and hearing your thoughts keep me motivated to keep writing this. I know all the plot points and I know where everything is leading up to, so sometimes I need to see people excited to keep myself excited. As I have mentioned before, I am in a pretty rough patch in life, my mental health has been pretty bad for years. But I’m working on it and finally am getting the help I need. I’m on track of getting better! I hope I can keep up with the updates but for now I think I can (once every 3 weeks).
> 
> I also wanted to mention Justine! She helps me with these chapters and was a BIG help with this one in particular! <3 She’s awesome and give her some love y’all! 
> 
> Anyway, thanks again! Let me know what you thought and until the next chapter!! <3


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I uhmm… am alive! The dragon did not eat me! But I was gone for a while (also from the Discord servers). I wasn’t doing so hot, mental health-wise. And sadly this story got kind of twisted up with some negative emotions. So to prevent further anxiety attacks I had to take a break. I blew through most of my (useable) backlog. This means my updates might be a bit slower than the three weeks I usually aim for, to try and build up some backlog. (I think I couldn’t write for a solid two months, so yeah, the last few uploads where backlog)
> 
> Anyway, I’m back! Thank you all for your patience, all the kind comments and supportive words in the Discord servers! You’re all so lovely and a joy to write for! I hope this chapter will hit the spot :D Enjoy~

Varian’s blood turned into ice when the realization hit. His heart hammered in his chest like it would leap right out of it, nearly deafening him with the pounding in his ears. His mouth went dry in a snap as he told everyone to run. It was like the world slowed around him. He could see his friends realize the danger they were in, one by one. The icey blue eyes paralyzed him for just a moment, as the dragon looked at him. But adrenalin coursed through his veins and broke him free a moment later. He waited just a split second to be sure everyone was making a run for it, before turning around himself, and running.

Varian had faced many threats in his lifetime, solved many deadly endeavors, but never once had he feared for his life so suddenly and intensely as he had now. Before he could turn around, the beast rose to its full height, it’s sheer size leaving Varian breathless.

To Varian’s horror, its movements were fast for its size. Within the noise of panic and fear around him the loud thuds of claws meeting the floor were like thunder in a quiet night. He couldn’t remember if he had ever run this fast in his life before. His body was pushing past limits in a desperate attempt to get out of the room. The doorway would be too small for the dragon, they could escape. They only needed to reach it.

It was like fear took a hold of his throat as a silvery, scaly claw moved down before him. He was running too fast to stop or change directions enough to not collide with it and it was far too big to jump over. It didn’t stop him from trying, though. Finding near inhuman strength in the moment, he leaped and a small sliver of hope-filled him as he saw the exit over the claw. Was he going to make it?

The hope disappeared as quickly as it had come when he started to descend again. He slammed hard into the claw and felt gravity pulling him back to the ground, but he couldn’t hit it before the scaly clawed hand closed around him.

He was done for, he knew it! The strong muscles in the claw closed firmly around him but did not squeeze him. The dragon most likely knew that there was no way for Varian to escape his grip, even when it wasn’t a tight one. The claw started to move up and Varian could hear Hugo shout.

“Varian!”

Varian couldn’t see what was going on inside the claw but he heard Nuru soon after.

“Hugo! No!”

He could hear shouts and the sounds of metal muffled through the claw. He wasn’t sure what was going on but the claw did not slow down.

The claw moved up rather fast and Varian was pretty sure the dragon was about to pop him into its mouth like he was a grape. After a moment the claw stopped and Varian figured that this was the end. The dragon would eat him and it be all over. The claw rotated, it’s palm facing up when it opened. Varian felt terror course through him as he saw an electric blue eye, bigger than his head, very close to him. He was laying on the palm, unable to move much as the eye stared at him. The crippling fear pinning Varian down slowly started to ebb away as nothing happened. The gigantic eye simply looked at him and it almost felt like something deep inside of the dragon was reaching out to Varian.

Varian dared to move, to sit up. He openly stared back at the beast holding him high up in the air, his heart gradually coming back to a natural pace. For a moment all Varian could see was the blue in the dragon’s eyes, the color so intensely familiar. He got back to his feet, a voice in the back of his head warning that his balance was better sitting.

The dragon moved its head, holding its claw ever steady in the air. The gigantic beast moved its nose towards Varian and two pricing blue eyes looked down at him over its nostrils. Varian didn’t know what compelled him to do so, but he gently reached out, his hand carefully coming down to rest on the silver skin of the dragon. It felt oddly like the leather of his gloves, but it was warm and buzzing with some kind of energy. It was thick and impenetrable under his fingertips, yet so undeniably alive. It seemed to Varian like a barrier between him and the dragon had fallen, allowing him to see the majestic beast with new eyes, and making him wonder why he was ever afraid of it to begin with.

The dragon moved its nose closer towards Varian, as if to welcome him to come closer. So Varian did. The dragon closed its eyes and gave a small huff of air that blew Varian’s hair back. Varian couldn’t help a giddy laugh escaping as he felt nearly dumbstruck by the fact that he was currently petting a dragon’s nose. It somehow felt similar to petting Ruddiger in his beast form. Yet he was hyper-aware of the dragon being so much bigger and stronger than Ruddiger could ever become.

“You’re not going to hurt me, are you?” Varian asked out loud as he placed a second hand on its nose, rubbing firmly against the skin. He wondered how it must feel, such small hands on a gigantic beast’s nose.

When the blue eyes opened again and looked at him, it oddly felt like he got an answer. It was almost like the dragon was affronted by Varian‘s assumption that it would.

Varian gasped as he remembered the commotion he had heard earlier. He looked down to see the group huddled around… something. He realized quickly that Hugo wasn’t visible and must be the one that they were huddled around. He found Hugo’s sword laying further away, abandoned on the ground.

“What happened?” he asked more himself but was surprised to get an answer. Hugo had attacked the dragon and it had easily swept him off his feet with its tail, sending his sword flying and leaving the man knocked out.

“Why did you-?” Varian broke off his question when the answer once more presented itself. Hugo had attacked first, not the dragon.

“Why did you grab me, then?” Varian decided to ask.

This time no answer came when the beast simply started to move. “Woah.” Varian quickly sunk to his knees to hold steady to the claw.

It was almost like a voice in his head said _“You ran away from me. I had to stop you.”_

Varian wanted to ask more questions but the claw suddenly tipped over and he slid off of it before he could try and grab it. He expected for a moment that he would fall from a great height but at the end of the claw was a marble floor. When he looked back he saw that he was on the elevated piece of the temple, overlooking the entire room.

Varian turned to the wall, noticing murals on the wall, accompanied by the ancient script Varian knew very well. The mural stretched to both sides, reaching both ends of the elevated platform. Varian noticed a distinctive lack of stairs or any other medium to get from or to where he stood.

Varian turned back to the dragon. “You wanted me to see this?” He could feel the confirmation coming from the dragon. “Okay.”

Turning once more, Varian eyed the script and the murals. He walked to the very beginning and started to read. The first part explained a ritual conducted with the Moon Opal to embed someone with powers. It explained, a bit vaguely, about the Opal giving off a blast and giving the person hit by it a chance to conceive a child born with powers. It mentioned how there was a selection process of people considered ‘worthy’ to bare such a child. It also mentioned that if both parents underwent the ritual their chances of bearing a child of power increased.

The text continued on about offerings people could bring to be deemed worthy. Varian moved along the wall, seeing depictions of the Moon Opal presented on a pedestal, very unlike the paintings Rapunzel had made from the Dark Kingdom. It was displayed like it was something to be worshipped and admired, whereas Rap’s paintings of the Opal’s pedestal had looked more like a vault, deeply hidden away in a big castle. The mural also depicted people bringing offerings to a dragon, one that looked very similar to the one standing behind him.

“Is this you?” Varian asked as he looked over his shoulder to the great dragon behind him. It couldn’t be, right?

_“Yes, I was the one to collect the offerings and see if the person offering was worthy.”_ The notion of answers increased in clarity the more Varian received them. It was almost like he could hear the voice in his head.

“You have lived for so long?” Varian now tried to focus more on the answer, trying to wrap his head around the experience.

_“Of course, I am an ancient dragon. I’ve seen many more days than humans and most other species ever see. It’s one of the reasons humans used to rely on us for our wisdom.”_

“R-right.” Varian couldn’t help but feel a bit baffled. Why wasn’t this common knowledge?

_“Humans are forgetful creatures. The stories passed down the generations get muddled easily, not to forget the blatant changes one makes to suit their own story. History is told through unreliable sources. It is not strange that your view of the past is colored and lacking.”_

Varian sighed and looked at the words written in the dead language, letting his fingers slip over the indents created to carve the words.

_“Neither is written knowledge impeccable,”_ The dragon continued. _“But it’s easier tested. And far less vulnerable for wrongful repeating,”_ the dragon paused, striking blue eyes looking at Varian. _“Do not worry though, for these texts are accurate.”_

“Okay,” Varian said, the word more a breath than anything else as he continued reading.

The next part explained more about the children that were blessed with powers. They were called Children of the Moon and the title caused shivers to run down Varian’s spine. The notion of human children belonging to the moon in any capacity made something twist inside his stomach but he pushed on reading.

The carved words continued to explain more about the Children of the Moon. How they could use their magic freely to bless their family and even their town. How these powers were meant to be used for good and to serve others. Varian was tempted to skip over a bit, feeling like the text was almost trying to convince him how great the Moon was but stopped doing so when his eyes fell on the word ‘markings’. He tracked back a bit and read about the marks that showed someone bared the power of the moon. It explained how every Child of the Moon would have a mark somewhere on their body in one of the blue shades found in the Moon Opal. The brighter and clearer the mark the greater the connection to the Moon and her powers.

Varian let his eyes drift up to the murals, seeing depictions of people with markings in different places and different shades of blue. One had a crescent moon on their hand, one other a vaguely curved line on their back, one had a rounding line under their eyes, another something similar to a crescent moon on their bicep, one more a curving line on their collarbone. There were many more drawn, but not as detailed as the ones at the front, all standing in a group. Varian’s breath shuttered when he saw a smaller figure a bit more in the back with a blue line through their long hair.

Without thinking Varian grabbed his fringe and pulled the teal part out of it. The memory of Girda asking him if he knew where the color had come from coming back to him. Girda had mentioned the color as if it had something to do with his magic powers. His powers had come from the moon. Was he…?

Varian turned to the dragon, words failing him.

The dragon didn’t seem to need to hear his words as a voice sounded once more inside of Varian’s head. _“You are indeed a Child of the Moon. That is why I brought you up here. Every child must know where their powers come from. They must know how to use them and know the dangers. That is all part of my work in this temple. That’s why I was awakened from my slumbers when you came close enough for me to sense your presence.”_

Varian’s mind had gone spiraling with the new information but made a screeching halt. “Awakened?”

_“Yes, it was my duty to await the Moon Opal and the Children of the Moon ever since the Moon Opal was stolen.”_

“Stolen? Wait, wait, no.” Varian shook his head, the heaping amount of information making him feel overwhelmed. “How are we even talking!?”

_“Because of our connection to the Moon. Yours seems to be weak, but I think you are hearing me much clearer now. You didn’t hear me at first. But I do not have to use magic to project my voice into your mind, because we are connected. I suspect it was when you touched me and knew I was safe that you opened up enough to me to hear my voice.”_

“So I’m the only one who can hear you?”

_“Without using magic, yes.”_

“Okay, so you said the Moon Opal was stolen? Is that why you’re here and the Moon Opal was in the Dark Kingdom?”

_“Yes, it was taken from us. People saw it as a weapon and sought to gain it. But it seemed people feared it too much. The Moon Opal is a part of the Moon, their powers work similarly. The moon reflects the light that comes from the sun. The Moon’s powers work the same. It reflects what it sees. It will return what you give it. Here it was worshipped and adored. The Moon returned that love and gave us many blessings. When the Moon Opal fell in the hands of the thieves who feared it, their fear and greed were reflected in its powers. The Moon Opal turned dangerous and the more dangerous it became the more people feared it. The thieves lost control, tried to lock it up. In its imprisonment, the Moon Opal reflected this and imprisoned the kingdom with it.”_

“That’s why there are no black rocks here?”

_“Yes, the Opal never showed that kind of power here, it never destroyed, only gave.”_

“So the black stone that slowly gained on Corona, it was because the king feared the Moon Opal?”

_“You are correct. And when more people feared it, it became worse.”_

Varian sighed a stuttering sigh. “So our… my fear just made it worse. It became a vicious cycle.” Varian gave a laugh. “We never understood what we were dealing with. All the history books only spoke of the dangers of the Moon Opal.”

_“That’s why people should be taught the truth,”_ The dragon said. _“The Moon Opal might have left the earth, but remnants of her powers linger in this world. You are proof of that.”_

“Wait, you know that the Opal is gone?” The dragon nodded. “Then why are you still here?”

_“For the Children of the Moon.”_

“But I don’t think there are more of us,” Varian said.

_“There are people carrying the power inside them still. They can still have children and those have a chance to be Children of the Moon if the Moon sees them as worthy.”_

“How long would you have to wait for that?” Varian asked.

_“Until they die.”_

Varian was quiet, the feeling of unfairness heavy on his heart. This dragon had stayed here for millennia just to wait him and potential Children of the Moon out. Only so he could pass on information. Wouldn’t it rather be free?

_“I am a male,”_ The dragon interjected.

“You can read my mind!?”

_“Yes,”_ The dragon sounded unaffected by Varian’s startled outburst. _“We are connected, as I mentioned before. Now please continue reading.”_

Varian thought of complaining for a second but then thought better of it. So he turned back to the script and continued reading.

He learned about foci used by the Children of the Moon to better control their powers. It was depicted as small glowing orbs in the murals. The last part of the text was a warning. Varian read about the danger of emotions. Strong emotions could effect the magic and could in extreme cases even cause wild magic. This was both dangerous for the people around the Child of the Moon and themselves. When trained it could be used to harness even greater powers, but the text advised against this.

The ancient script ended and Varian took a moment to commit everything to his memory. If he succeeded in freeing his magic, he’ll need to remember not to use magic when his emotions were too strong. And how was he going to get a focus?

_“Here, Child,”_ Varian could hear the dragon’s voice loud and clear in his mind. Varian turned to where the dragon was, seeing him point at a piece of the mural. _“Open this.”_

Varian walked over and saw faint lines where the marble block met another marble block. As he focused his eyes on it he could see that one block was not mortared to the others. His fingers fit just between the small gab and as he pressed in further he could feel a ledge. He curled his fingers around it and pulled. The marble block came out like a drawer, showing its content displayed on dark blue satin.

Varian gasped as he saw small orbs settled neatly in the dark satin. They looked incredibly smooth and were vibrant in a very unnatural way. What was even more stunning was the fact that they looked like miniature moons, even their glow was the same as a big full moon in the night sky.

_“Take one,”_ The dragon said. _“These are special foci. They work only for the Children of the Moon.”_

Varian took one out and pushed the marble block back into its original place. The orb didn’t feel cold, as he expected. The room they were in was everything but warm, but the orb didn’t seem to be affected by that. It felt just as warm as his own skin, almost like it was a part of him.

_“It is not fully attuned to you yet,”_ The dragon said. _“But that is easy enough. Just use your magic while you’re in touch with the focus and it will align with you. I advise to do so immediately.”_

Varian paused for a moment. “I- I can’t.”

_“Why not?”_

“My magic is blocked,” He explained. “An elf tried to unblock it for me, but he couldn’t.”

_“So, you’re a defect?”_

Those words cut him painfully hard. “I’m not a defect!” Varian wasn’t sure why he lashed back as he did. He knew his powers were bust. Or at least until he figured out a way to deblock them. He never wanted magic anyways, so why did it hurt him so much to hear he was defective. He never needed magic before!

_“Then use your powers, I can sense that they are inside you.”_

“I don’t even know how!”

_“Why are you angry, Child?”_

“Don’t call me child! I have a name! And of course I’m angry! You’re calling me a defect! I never asked for these powers. Was never even taught to use them, let alone told that I had them.” Varian wondered if his father had known or had even the slightest suspicion.

_“I meant no offense. I was just stating what I perceived.”_ the dragon moved his nose to Varian, pushing it carefully against him. “ _Please don’t be upset,”_ Varian could feel the dragon was really trying, even if clumsily so, to calm Varian. _“I will call you Varian, if you call me Seyr Uryte.”_

Varian patted the dragon’s nose, feeling himself calm down. “Seyr Uryte,” Varian repeated the name. “That is quite hard to pronounce. Can I call you Seyr?”

_“It is draconic after all, a language foreign to you. You cannot call me Seyr, that would be disrespectful to the Moon. But Uryte or Ury will do.”_

“Uryte it is, then.” Varian smiled, even though the name still felt odd on his tongue. “Just don’t call people defects, okay?”

_“Okay.”_

Varian leaned a bit further onto the nose of the dragon and sighed. “Why is petting you so calming?”

_“I don’t know, you’re the first to say so,”_ Seyr Uryte said, his blue eyes staring at Varian. _“You seem to think of a raccoon.”_

Varian laughed. “I guess you do make me think of Ruddiger a bit. He’s my pet raccoon.” Varian moved back from the dragon. “Could you bring me back to my friends? I want to see if Hugo is alright. You did knock him over quite hard I believe.”

_“Of course, hop on,”_ Uryte held up his claw for Varian to jump onto. When Varian stood firmly upon his palm he moved his claw down as he turned to the group of humans. He placed his claw down and Varian jumped off with a quick thanks.

“Varian!” Hugo was the first to run at Varian, worry clear in his face. He embraced Varian, barely slowing enough before doing so, nearly knocking the two to the ground. “You’re alive!” He moved back before Varian could truly return the hug and eyed him up and down. Hugo’s hands grabbed the younger male and patted Varian down to try and find anything wrong with him. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

Varian pushed Hugo’s hands away before they could go much further than his shoulders and upper torso. He tried to suppress the blush he felt because of Hugo’s hands. “I’m fine Hugo,” Varian said, cupping Hugo’s cheek. “How about you? You’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Hugo pressed. “But the dragon, what happened to you?”

“He’s friendly,” Varian said as he dropped his hand. The rest of the group had gathered around him as well, all looking quite worried and still very afraid of the dragon behind Varian. “Really, he’s not aggressive. He showed me this ancient text about this temple. It had information about my powers, and Uryte gave me this,” Varian explained and held up the orb.

Varian saw all the eyes around him grow in awe as he held up the miniature moon. All except Hugo’s, which narrowed in question. “Uryte?”

“That’s the dragon’s name,” Varian said.

“How do you know the dragon’s name?” Nuru asked.

“He told me himself.” Varian gestured to the dragon behind him who moved into a laying position, his head coming to a rest right behind Varian.

“The dragon talks?” Yong sounded more in awe than confused, though the rest of the group did seem very confused.

“Well, sort of. I can hear his voice in my head,” Varian explained.

“A-are you sure you’re okay, Goggles?” Hugo asked as he took Varian’s head in his hands, trying to spot an injury.

“Y-yeah!” Varian pushed Hugo away, feeling embarrassed that Hugo was questioning his sanity. “We have a connection through the Moon. I can hear him.”

_“It is true.”_

The group around Varian stiffened as they all could suddenly hear a voice rumble in their heads. Shock was clear on everyone’s faces.

_“Varian can hear me and I can hear him without using magic. Unlike you, who bare no connection to the Moon. Without magic you would not understand my language, nor would I understand yours.”_

“I’m hearing a dragon speak to me,” Yong said, his voice a mixture of shock and awe. “Awesome!!”

“Wait, you don’t understand our language?” Varian asked.

_“The language you speak has evolved over the many years that I was locked up in here. I can recognize some remnants of what was spoken before, but I no longer understand.”_

“Locked up?” Varian repeated. “Aren’t you staying here willingly?”

_“I was bred for this purpose. I came here willingly. Though after the Moon Opal was stolen I saw no need to stay. The scripture is here, the foci are here, so my job had been stripped down to a guardian. I am no such thing alone. My main purpose was to be the bridge between the Moon and humanity. That purpose was stolen along with the Moon Opal. I wanted to bring it back, but the humans were afraid of me and locked me up in here.”_ The dragon moved one of his hind legs, showing a silver-colored shackle hanging from it. _“They used the magic of the Moon to bind me here. I cannot break these shackles.”_

“That’s terrible,” Nuru said, her hands covering her mouth in shock.

_“Only when the last of the Moon Opal’s powers have left this world will the spell break and only then will I be able to free myself.”_

“That’s not fair!” Varian felt anger boil inside him. “That would mean you have to wait for me to die. I can’t just go on and live while I know that my life keeps you imprisoned!” Varian felt disgusted. How dare they lock up a living creature this long? “Is there any way we can free you?”

_“I’ll be free if you are able to break the chain. The binding spell was only cast on me, so to you it should be simple steel shackles. But they are thick, so I doubt humans can break these without their tools.”_

“The dragon is right,” Albert said. “I doubt our smith could get these broken anytime soon. We’ll need help from the capital to get through those.”

“Have you tried ripping them out of the foundation?” Hugo asked. “I mean, if the chains are unbreakable, maybe the flooring isn’t?”

_“Of course I tried,”_ Uryte said indignantly. _“How do you think I gained your attention. When I use all my powers to pull, I shake this mountain and the earth around me. I’ve been trying to get the Moon Child… I mean Varian’s attention for a long while.”_

“So you are the cause of these earthquakes?” Albert asked, the slightest hint of fear leaking into his words.

_“Yes.”_

Varian could feel the color drain from his face as realization hit him. “Didn’t you tell me you awoke when I got close enough for you to sense me? Does that mean that when I entered Neserdenia half a year ago, these earthquakes started, because of me?”

_“I expected the people to send you over to solve the problem with your magic. I had to wait a long time before they did.”_

“You damaged my village and endangered people’s life just to get _him_ to come here?” Albert pointed at Varian in anger.

_“I needed to fulfill my duty, human,”_ Uryte growled back, an actual growl sounding out loud from the dragon.

“Okay stop you two!” Varian stepped in between. “We can’t change what has been done. Uryte, please don’t shake the earth anymore. We will set you free from this place.”

“And how are we going to do that?” Albert asked.

“I can use nitric acid to dissolve the steel,” Varian answered calmly “I have enough in the village to at least weaken one side of a shackle enough to break through it with force. We have to figure out a way to get him out of this building though. The hallways we used are by far too small.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like this part of the building was originally underground,” Hugo spoke as he pointed at the higher parts of the room they were in. “Those look like remnants of windows. The stone has pushed itself through those weak points.”

_“Yes, this part of the temple wasn’t underground indeed. The Moon Opal used to bask in the moon’s light. But those damned thieves tried to bury this temple under the mountain.”_

“So, that means that this part can’t be too deep,” Varian concluded but didn’t continue as a sudden dizziness overcame him.

“So that means we could dig it out?” Albert asked. “But how do we find the most shallow part?”

Varian’s limps slowly turned to lead as his mind started to fog up. What was going on? Why was he suddenly so exhausted. A heaviness came over him and it felt like he hadn’t slept for years.

“I can use my star map to locate it on your maps,” Nuru added, but her voice was starting to feel distant.

“I can blow the rocks away with my explosives!” Yong cheered, happy as always to assist. 

Varian wanted to join in, think of ways to free Uryte, but his mind was clouded. He couldn’t form a single coherent thought and all his body did was beg him for rest. What was wrong with him?

“I think this will work out perfectly,” Varian wasn’t quite sure what Hugo was talking about anymore. He couldn’t keep his eyes open. He just wanted to lay down and sleep.

“I think it’s best if we return to-”

“Woah! Goggles!?”

The world had given a particular hard lurch to the side and Varian lost sight on what was up or down. He connected with something warm and not too hard, so he couldn’t be on the ground.

“Varian? What’s wrong?” Varian could feel a hand cup his cheek but he didn’t know quite how to answer the question asked.

“What’s going on with him?” Was that Yong?

“Did you do this?” Hugo again.

_“No, and there was no magic involved. I would have sensed that.”_

“Hey, Stripe, stay with me!” the hand cupping his cheek was now patting him but it was all slowly fading away from him. “Varian! Are you hurt!?”

It was like his body slowly started to drift as the worried voice drowned out into the nothingness around him. He was floating in a thick mist, not sure what was causing him to feel so fuzzy, but he couldn’t bring himself to care much, because he was finally falling asleep. And sleep was all he really wanted.

Just quiet, peaceful, sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! Another cliffhanger! You hate me yet? Oh boy, I did not mean for the chapter to actually end on this part, but after rewriting this entire chapter about three times it just grew so much (for the better!) and I just couldn’t keep pushing the length also for updating sake. I really wanted to get this out to you lovely people <3 
> 
> So yeah, I low-key gave my ace character a dragon! Much more epic than giving Varian some garlic bread, am I right!? (sorry for all you non-ace folk, it’s an ace thing) I hope you guys liked the lore. I wanted to add some things and lay down some more rules for Var and his magic. 
> 
> And now it’s time to thank two very awesome people!! :D Justine for being a total boss and beta reading this chapter for me hella last minute! Go check her stuff out! It’s great! I recommend her Falling Flying story. It’s so good! https://archiveofourown.org/bookmarks/607801240
> 
> And finally, as you guys without a doubt have noticed, we had some AMAZING art featured in this chapter! Misha, or FM Doodles as you might know her, made this for this chapter and you should totally check her stuff out! Find her on: https://www.instagram.com/fmdoodles/ and https://fmdoodles.tumblr.com/ You can see the drawing zoomed in and completely zoomed out there! So go and give her all the love!
> 
> Thank you all for reading and please let me know what you think! I love to hear from you all! <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back! Just before the end of the year :D  
> With great thanks to Justine who was a total boss and beta'd this baby in a day, I was able to upload this before the new year! Wohooo! 
> 
> And I am happy to tell you guys that I'm finally starting to get *some* backlog back. It's not much as of yet, but we're working on it!  
> So I'm not promising quite yet that I'm back at the 3-week upload schedule but I will be aiming for it once more ^^
> 
> Welp on with the chapter~

It had surprised Hugo to suddenly see Varian go very pale. His body seemed to slump a bit as if he was trying to hold it up, but his muscles no longer hold him. Albert was about to suggest something when Hugo saw it happen. Varian suddenly came crashing down like a house of cards being knocked down by a strong wind.

“Woah! Goggles!?” Hugo was quick to close the distance between him and Varian and was just in time to grab Varian and stop him from falling face-first to the ground. 

Varian bumped into Hugo’s chest with his head, and Hugo smoothly moved to the floor as he held on to the worryingly limp body.

“Varian? What’s wrong?” Nuru sat down beside Hugo to have a look at Varian.

Hugo cupped Varian’s face trying to turn it towards him but no reaction came. Varian’s eyes were closed and his face was completely slack. There was no blood visible anywhere, neither did he seem to be in pain. What happened to him?

“What’s going on with him?” Yong also sat down next to Varian, wanting to reach out, but not quite touching Varian.

“Did you do this?” Hugo couldn’t keep the anger from his voice as he sneered at the dragon. They hadn’t seen what the dragon had done with Varian while he was up there.

 _“No, and there was no magic involved. I would have sensed that.”_ Hugo wasn’t sure why, but he believed the dragon. It wouldn’t make sense for the dragon to hurt him when he was no longer alone. He would had have plenty of opportunities loads better than this one to do something to Varian if he had wished to do so.

“Hey, Stripe, stay with me!” Hugo zeroed back on Varian and felt desperation come over him as no reaction came. The hand cupping Varian’s face, keeping it from lolling down, started to pat him to try and get a reaction. “Varian!” panic was rising inside Hugo. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m afraid that he’s out cold,” Nuru said as she took the hand now slapping Varian’s cheek. “I don’t think slapping him will help.”

“You have a better idea, Princess?” Hugo growled, his hands clutching the man in his hands tightly.

“How about we check his vitals?” Nuru stayed calm. She was well aware of Hugo’s fear growing deep inside him. She could feel it inside her own heart as well. “Lay him in a stable position.”

Hugo did as he was told and placed Varian down, hating with a deep fire how limp Varian was. Nuru was quick to grab Varian’s wrist and press down with her fingers, trying to feel his pulse.

Hugo was about to tell her to hurry up when she looked up. “It’s steady, if a bit low, but nothing that would cause me to worry,” she stated calmly and moved on to place two fingers under Varian’s nose. This time there was barely a wait. “He’s breathing. There seems to be nothing wrong with him.” Even though the notion should have brought relief, the group only felt the pressure of not knowing what was wrong with Varian.

 _“If I may.”_ Uryte moved his claw to Varian. _“I can try and heal him,”_ the dragon explained as he closed his claw around Varian. Hugo gave him a mistrusting glare but let him pick Varian up anyway.

Uryte brought Varian up a bit, one arm hanging over one side of his claw. He cupped his other claw underneath to completely support the human and opened his mouth for the first time since the group of humans had arrived.

The humans shuddered as he started to talk in his own language, a simple and short spell. He was well aware that Draconic sounded pretty scary to humans, but it was needed to perform this spell. Urtye could feel the magic leave him and enter Varian and how his power overflowed from Varian. Once Varian was completely healed, he placed Varian back down before Hugo. He hoped the slight jostling would wake the human up. It did not.

“What did you do?” Nuru asked, eying Varian. She could not see a difference.

 _“I healed him. Curses aren’t lifted, and active poisons aren’t removed by this, but it would still bring him away from his deathbed. I don’t see why he hasn’t awakened yet. I didn’t sense any spells or curses and if it was a poison I expected the effect of the potion to be at least lifted for a little while.”_ Uryte explained.

Nuru and Hugo shared a look, both finding their worries mirrored in the other’s face. What could possibly be wrong with Varian? “Think,” Hugo muttered more to himself than the others. He pressed his index finger against his forehead as if he could prod his brain into action, before the rest of his hand came down to pinch the bridge of his nose. “What do we know?”

“Varian was tired, right?” Yong said. “Maybe he got sick?”

_“Any non-magical illness would have been healed.”_

“Didn’t you say that he got hurt when trying to free his magic, back in Eberdeen? Maybe something like that happened?” Nuru asked, thinking out loud with the rest.

 _“Again, I sensed no magic,”_ Uryte said.

“Maybe something he ate?” Albert asked.

“He hasn’t eaten anything that none of us has eaten,” Nuru explained. She gave a frustrated sigh. “There must be something.”

Hugo kept repeating facts that he knew in his head, trying to find something that would click or make sense. After a bit, something did click and it made his heart sink. Varian had been tired, really tired. That hadn’t been really odd after all the things that happened to him the last few days and nights, but what was strange was that this tiredness had disappeared, or at least not been prominent while they climbed the mountain and explored this temple. On one hand, he hoped to be right, because that meant Varian was as alright as he could be after exhausting himself. But at the same time, it would mean Varian had gone behind his back.

Hugo got up from beside Varian and grabbed Varian’s backpack. The group eyed him with curiosity as the man quietly opened the bag. He rummaged through Varian’s belongings until he found it, right next to the waterskin. He fished the empty vial out of the bag to check the label though he was certain what it was already. The bottle shape and size was a kind he’d never seen Varian use before, but he had to be sure. He turned the glass around in his hand and saw what he had dreaded. A label with his own handwriting reading ‘Energy potion’.

Hugo took a deep breath. Varian was fine. Varian was going to be just fine. But that didn’t lessen the strange feeling the revelation left in his stomach. Varian had gone behind his back and stole one of his potions. One he had told Varian not to take before. Varian had stolen from him, endangered himself and all behind his back. It hurt. It hurt him really badly.

“Guy’s he’s…” Hugo was angry, sad, and upset and somehow he couldn’t level his voice in that moment so he stopped. He took another deep breath. He had to put it aside for now. There was nothing either he or Varian could do in this moment to fix anything. All he could do was accept that Varian did this and that they’d have to figure this out later. “He’s fine.”

The group, even the dragon, stared at him. “He’s used one of my energy potions,” Hugo explained as he held up the empty vial and sat down beside Varian again, his heart aching in conflict. “He used up all the energy he had while under the effect of this potion. His body could no longer keep him conscious after the potion stopped working. He’ll have to sleep for a while before we can wake him up.”

Nuru sighed in relief while Yong just looked confused.

“Well,” Albert started a bit awkward. “Nothing we can do for him now.”

“But how are we going to get Varian down the mountain?” Yong asked.

“We can’t,” Nuru said. “The mountains were hard enough to climb on our own. We can’t carry him down. One of us will just have to stay here with him while the rest gathers the things we need to free Ur- Ut-” Nuru struggled for a moment, flushed. “Utre?”

 _“Uryte,”_ The dragon corrected her, but didn’t say anything else.

“I’ll stay,” Hugo said.

“No, we need you to gather the materials. None of us know what this acid thing is that Varian wants to use, let alone what more he needs. We need you in the village, Hugo,” Nuru explained, arms crossed.

“How about me?” Yong asked.

“You are needed to ready the bombs to break through the layer of rock on top of this temple,” Nuru said.

“And we need you to contact the king that the village is safe and no reinforcements need to come after all,” Albert said to Nuru. “And we need the guides to bring us back. I can stay behind instead.”

 _“I don’t see the need for all this,”_ Uryte came in. _“I am here. For what reason does Varian need human assistance?”_

The group stared up at the dragon. Of course, they didn’t need to stay behind. Uryte couldn’t even leave, so he might as well look after Varian. 

“I… well that’s a good point.” Hugo scratched the back of his head and gave an awkward laugh. “Not like any of us could protect Varian any better than a full-blown dragon could.”

“And he’ll be sleeping anyway,” Nuru added. “I think this will be perfect. If you don’t mind, Uryte.”

 _“Of course not,”_ The dragon said as he picked Varian up, once more. _“I’ll keep him safe. You go gather your materials and I’ll wait here.”_

“Just be careful with him, okay?” Hugo grimaced at how big the claw was, picking Varian up like he was a small stuffed toy. “Humans are fragile.”

 _“I am aware,”_ Uryte sounded slightly irritated. _“Now go do what you need to do.”_

The group looked at each other before nodding and starting to gather their belongings.

->\/<-

Sleep was slowly ebbing away, and the first thing Varian noticed was the fact he was missing his blanket, but not really cold. He moved his hand, trying to feel for the blanket, thinking Hugo might have taken it. Instead of feeling his mat, or the tent under his fingers, he felt something leathery, but warm. Warm?

Varian shot up, looking around in panic. It was rather dark around him and it took him a moment to make out the shape of a dragon head. He looked to his other side to see mostly uncurled claws. He had been laying inside the claw, sleeping. Why was he sleeping on the dragon’s claw?

Why was he sleeping in the first place? He sighed and rubbed his face. He still felt terribly tired, but the fact he was sleeping in the claws of a dragon didn’t really make him want to roll over and continue sleeping.

Right, they were looking for the cause of the earthquakes when they heard the noise coming from inside the mountain. They found this dragon at the end of all the puzzles and it showed Varian an ancient text. He moaned as things became a bit blurry after that. They had started to plan a way to free Uryte, but he couldn’t quite remember what happened during that conversation. He must have fallen asleep for some reason.

Right, he had used Hugo’s energy potion! That must have worn off or something. Was it an after effect of the potion that made him feel this horrible? It was definitely worse than a hangover.

A dim light suddenly filled the darkness around him and Varian snapped his head towards the source. It was Urtye opening one of his eyes before the second opened as well. More light filled the air and now Varian could see that the dragon had used his wings and body to make a small and dark room.

 _“You have awakened,”_ Urtye said. Varian flinched at the sudden loudness of the voice inside his head. Yeah, definitely worse than a hangover. _“Are you alright, Varian?”_

“Yeah,” Varian answered, massaging his forehead. “It feels like I was run over by a horse carriage.”

 _“Shouldn’t you rest more then?”_ Urtye asked.

“No, I should help the others get ready to free you,” Varian said as he pushed back his hair.

 _“The others are gone.”_ Varian’s heart plummeted.

“What?”

_“They left a couple of hours ago to gather resources. I don’t know how long they’ll be gone for.”_

“Oh,” Varian wasn’t sure what to say or think. Of course, they would start to gather things and let the village know they’re safe, but at the same time, he wondered if they weren’t worried about him just randomly falling asleep. Maybe the fact he was so tired the whole day made them decide to just let him rest while they did the work. “That makes sense. I guess I was asleep for a while, huh?”

 _“Yes,”_ Varian was pretty sure Uryte wanted to say more but stopped himself as Varian’s stomach gave a loud growl. _“I believe you’re in need of some food,”_ The dragon said instead.

Varian couldn’t help but blush a little. “Yeah, I could use some.”

The dragon lifted his wing and the light of the room made Varian squint. He needed a moment to adjust to the light but once he did he hopped off the claw. He noticed his bag sitting by the entrance and went to grab it. He hadn’t really packed much food. Just one loaf of bread if he remembered correctly, but it would do to still his hunger. He also had a full waterskin left. But as he opened his backpack he noticed right away that there were more supplies in it than he had originally packed. The others must have left some of their supplies for him.

Varian could help but smile at the sentiment and took his bag back to the dragon. Uryte had his claw still open and on the ground so Varian hopped back on it. It was much warmer than the cold marble floor. Uryte looked at Varian as he took out the food left for him.

“You want some too?” Varian asked. “Though I doubt it would be enough to still your hunger,” Varian said as he realized that a loaf of bread was probably like a crumb to him.

 _“It’s quite all right, Varian,”_ Uryte said. _“My body is in a hibernation state. I do not need to be fed. My powers are very limited in this state but I do not need them to their full extent.”_

Varian looked up from his bread to the dragon. “Doesn’t sound like fun, though.”

Varian had the notion the dragon was smiling at him. _“Go eat, little one.”_

He couldn’t help but smile back before taking a big bite from the bread. He was very hungry indeed.

->\/<-

Varian was reading one of the books Girda had given him. One book had turned out to be a beginner’s guide to magic, explaining the basic know-how about magic and some safe spells to practice with. The other, the one he was reading right now, was a book about magic potions, how to make them, and how to infuse them with your own magic. He hadn’t freed his magic yet, so he couldn’t really do the last steps for the potions, but the base potions were interesting enough on their own.

He was reading about a healing potion. One that seemed weaker than the one Girda sold by the description, but the components were rather interesting to Varian. There were herbs listed he had never considered to use in potions but seeing them here made him want to try them out someday.

Varian gave his finger a quick lick before grabbing the very thin paper of the old book and flipping it over to read the instructions on the potion brewing part of the process. His eyes rolled over the words with ease. The sounds of footsteps and something smaller filled his ears and when he looked up from his comfortable place on Uryte’s claw he saw his friends, the village leader, some more people he didn’t recognize, and something small and fast enter the room.

The small moving animal was quickly recognized by Varian to be Ruddiger. Varian put down his book, ready to catch the speeding raccoon when it jumped.

Instead of snuggling into an embrace like he would usually do, Ruddiger scurried out of Varian’s arms and climbed over his human’s body chittering loudly.

“Woah, Ruddiger, what are you doing?” Varian asked, holding up his arms as Ruddiger climbed around his torso before ending on top of Varian’s head.

“I think he was worried about you,” Hugo said as he approached the two. “Just like us. We couldn’t get him to calm down when we returned without you.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry buddy,” Varian apologized as he took the raccoon from his head, petting the now calm animal. “I didn’t mean to worry y- OUCH!” Ruddiger had suddenly given a sharp bite in Varian’s hand but licked the teeth marks he had left right after. “Okay, yeah I deserved that,” Varian said, brushing his fingers through the gray fur in firm and steady patterns.

“You still look tired,” Hugo said as he cupped Varian’s cheek. His thumb rubbing the dark circles under Varian’s eyes.

“Hi to you, too,” Varian smiled, looking up from his animal companion to the blond standing in front of him. He noticed a lot of worry in his eyes. “I am still tired. But I’ll rest as soon as we’re back in the village, I promise.”

“Good,” Hugo’s words sounded somewhat hard and it made something twist up inside of Varian. Hugo’s hand fell as he spoke. “Cause you won’t be taking another of my potions.”

Varian’s world came crashing down at those words. He suddenly recognized the look of worry as a look of hurt. Hugo knew and of course he felt betrayed. Of course Hugo would hate it that Varian had gone behind his back and stolen from him.

“Hugo, I can explain.” He tried, reaching out for Hugo’s touch.

Hugo though, took a step back, getting out of reach. “Not here,” he simply said.

Varian could practically see a mask slip over Hugo’s face, one he hadn’t seen in months. “Hugo, I’m sorry,” Varian pressed, stepping closer once more.

“Are you?” Hugo’s words were cold and pierced right through Varian’s heart. He could see anger peeking through. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Varian wanted to press on, but he knew better. Hugo was mad, and god damn it, he was right to be. He just wished they could talk it out now, right here. But in a way Hugo was right. It wasn’t a good idea to talk about something like this so openly. Varian had denied a relationship with him, told him to wait, didn’t tell the others about the thing blooming between them. Could he really open up with Hugo _here_? Could he explain why he did it? How he had felt? Could Hugo even open up here like that? It was unfair to request that from Hugo. But he hated how terrible it made him feel. He wanted to reach out and reconcile with Hugo so badly.

Varian bit the inside of his lip, trying to push back the tears he had felt prickling in his eyes. He’d just have to follow Hugo’s example. Put on a mask and set it aside for a more appropriate time.

“Varian,” Nuru approached after giving Hugo an odd look as the blond walked away. “We were so worried about you! I’m happy to see you back on your feet again.” Unlike the hurt and anger he had seen in Hugo, Varian saw sincere relief in Nuru.

“You really scared us,” Yong said, giving Varian a hug. It was a bit awkward with Ruddiger still holding tight to Varian. “Are you ready to bust out the dragon?”

Varian laughed, Yong always made it easy for Varian to laugh. Something about Yong made it easy to set his pain and regret aside in favor of making Yong happy. “Yes, I am, Yong.”

“Good,” Albert took the place on the other side of Nuru. “You’re the brains of this plan. So where do we start?” He asked. “Hugo made the glassblower create a glass holder for your acid. He was pretty particular about the shape and thickness. He also brought that acid. We brought our smith as well. Yong prepared his explosives and Nuru and our mountaineers managed to map everything out.”

“I,” Varian’s eyes slipped over the group of people gathered, Hugo the only one standing off to the side his back turned to Varian, staring at the Uryte legs. “Wow. Uhm, okay, we’ll have to start with blowing open this temple. I don’t want to flood this place with the fumes that will be created by the nitric acid. So we need the ventilation that will create. So Yong, you’re up first.”

“Hah! Let’s go!”

Nuru smiled at Varian. “Let’s get this dragon freed!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun duuuunnn!! We have conflict brewing!
> 
> I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It was a bit shorter than you're maybe used to but the next one will be a biggy ^^
> 
> All your kind comments really help this girl out, thanks for all of those! I'll try my best to be a bit better at reacting to them, but know, I read them all and they mean the world to me! <3  
> Thanks again for all your support!
> 
> I hope you all have a safe and good new years eve and be able to enjoy the people you love. See you next year <3


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly got it! Just one day past the three weeks mark!  
> Y'all ready for some tension!?  
> I won't hold you up, enjoy! <3

Hugo was staring at Varian’s back. The group had all mostly gathered near the opening Yong had created near the end of the temple and were sitting there to stay out of the fumes, as per Varian’s instructions. Uryte sat in the middle of the temple, the chain keeping him here stretched but not taut as one shackle rested in a bowl-shaped nearly perfectly around it. Hugo had measured it to the best of his ability without the proper materials and he was happy to see it was working perfectly at keeping the metal suspended in the nitric acid without a lot of empty space. Varian had only so much nitric acid on him after all.

Varian had thanked him, praised him even when he saw the glass bowl. Hugo couldn’t help but want to just stop being angry with him when he had smiled at him, head slightly cocked to the side as he held the glass with his thick gloves and wore his goggles. He was annoyed at how easily his heart was swayed by Varian. But at the same time, it only ached more.

It was Varian who insisted that stealing was bad, even when it would help him. It was Varian who taught him to be open and honest. How was it fair for Varian to do the opposite to him now? But what he hated most was the blatant disregard of his own health and safety. He had seen Varian act selfless and self-sacrificial before. But that was before he had started to care this much about him. It was before Varian had become this important to him. Before they were a thing… but they weren’t a thing, were they?

Hugo tightened his grip on his folded arms, his jaw tight to keep his mask of indifference well in place.

Varian had told him to wait, told him he wasn’t ready for a relationship. But at the same time, he was acting like they were. They both were. Varian wasn’t the only one to blame for that. Hugo had sought out touch often. And he would be lying if he didn’t treasure every moment they had shared with quiet kisses. But at the same time, he started to think that he might not be able to read Varian as much as he had always thought.

Varian got up from where he’d been inspecting the shackle and walked over to the dragon’s head. Hugo’s eyes followed him, watching him as he pressed his hands against the silver skin of the dragon’s nose. He had a vague feeling that Varian was talking with the dragon but he couldn’t hear any of it.

What had Varian really meant when he had said that he was bad at love? He suggested that Hugo wouldn’t want him when he knew why. But what could possibly make Hugo stop loving Varian? Could this be part of it?

His eyes shifted from Varian to the nitric acid in the glass holder, it was bubbling and fuming as it was slowly eating away at the shackle.

He loved how smart Varian is, he loved how kind and caring he is. Hugo was mesmerized by Varian’s smile and the way his eyes would shine whenever he discovered something. Hugo adored how Varian’s body fit so perfectly against his, how excited giggles escaped him when Hugo peppered him with kisses. Hugo’s mind was sent reeling whenever he saw the trust in Varian’s eyes. Not to mention that one time Varian stared at him like a love-struck puppy. He thought it was downright hot how Varian could be so feisty, not letting people dictate how he felt or had to act. He adored how Varian would become competitive easily and even more with him. He couldn’t stop thinking about Varian wielding a sword. He didn’t do it often but when he did… well Hugo needed a long walk afterward.

There were so many things he loved about Varian. So many details, his personality, the way he carried himself, the way he looked. What was there not to love?

Then Hugo’s heart suddenly plummeted. Varian had gone behind his back, stole from him. That was certainly something he didn’t love. Something he wouldn’t have thought of too much about a year ago, but now, now it hurt. He’d never thought Varian would be the one to steal.

Hugo’s mind went back to Varian this morning. He had been so intense, even picking a fight with Nuru. That had been very unlike Varian. Yet, when they talked, when he finally found the root of Varian’s behavior, it was so entirely Varian after all. A part of him he hadn’t seen much of. A part that dealt with trauma and the kind of disappointments one never forgets. A moment where the ever trusting Varian didn’t trust, where his easy coming smile faded. Varian wasn’t often vulnerable like that, eyes watery, mouth full of raw emotions as he didn’t think of his words. Varian never really showed this side of himself. Could there be more? Could there be a reason why he was so willing to climb a potentially active volcano to save people? So willing to throw away his life for strangers. Was it really only a trauma thing, or was there more?

Hugo’s eyes drifted back to Varian who was hugging the dragon’s nose now. Then his eyes lifted to the orange fumes slowly wafting away through the gigantic hole created by Yong.

Could it be that Varian thought Hugo wouldn’t like him when he learned about Varian’s disregard for his own safety? Hugo’s train of thought paused for a moment. Varian had not just stolen something from him, he had used a potion that Hugo had told him was dangerous and he shouldn’t use. At first, Hugo figured Varian thought he had lied about the danger and was just keeping the potion for himself since Hugo did use it now and then. But now that he was seeing it along with the other things Varian had done in a single day… He couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that Varian hadn’t cared what the potion would have done to him. He hadn’t cared for himself enough to ask, to check, to talk with Hugo about it.

Hugo knew they weren’t dating, not officially, so he couldn’t really say that Varian owed it to him to talk about these kinds of things, but then again, if Varian didn’t do it now, would he later on? Would Varian ever care enough to see how much he was worth to Hugo? How much it would hurt him if Varian was no longer with him? Was Varian willing to see himself as part of Hugo once they got really serious? Would Varian ever respect that Hugo needed him just as much as the other way around? That Hugo wouldn’t be okay with him simply sacrificing himself for some strangers?

Would he be okay with it if Varian didn’t? Would he be okay with Varian never really caring enough about himself? Could he love someone who didn’t love themselves? Could he share his life with someone who didn’t see his own life having worth?

Dread settled in his stomach when he knew the answer and it lingered in the back of his mind like a foul after taste. The answer was no.

Hugo took a sudden deep breath. He hadn’t realized he had slowed his breath so much when he was thinking. He closed his eyes, pressing a bit harder against the wall with his back, taking in the feeling of hard rock digging into his skin to try and ground himself. He knew the answer to that question, yes. But, he didn’t know if those questions would come into play, to begin with. He was just speculating. He didn’t really know why Varian had done these things. Maybe it was really only because of his trauma. They could work out his trauma. They could find a way to work with it, maybe even a way to heal it. And once Varian got closer to him, he might open up even more, let him in on these kinds of feelings. He could even learn how to read Varian better. Get to know him even more. He might even be able to see when Varian would struggle, be able to help him deal with it.

Yeah, the thought of helping Varian deal with his past helped soothe him. That was an image for the future he was okay with. Of course, Varian wouldn’t be perfect, no one was. He was aware now that Varian had a lot of trauma in his past and he was okay with that, as long as it was something they could deal with together. Because the thought of Varian quietly suffering in his arms was something he couldn’t really handle.

Hugo’s eyes fell back down to Varian. Varian was resilient, smart, and caring. He was certain that if Varian wanted to, that they could face whatever the world would throw at them. Even if it was Varian’s own trauma.

Hugo sighed as he pushed his hair back. Here he was, not even four days after telling Varian his feelings, expecting Varian to be so open with him. He was a fool, wasn’t he? So much happened these past days, their days filled to the max with adventures and discoveries. It felt like weeks had passed and he hungered to get closer to Varian. Yet Varian asked for space, for time. And time was just passing by so extremely slow for him and it was driving him up the wall. But he couldn’t even talk about that now, the next time they had time for themselves would be filled with a difficult talk, because this whole potion thing was hanging above them. And he wasn’t willing to put this aside. It was important. He needed to know what was going on. He needed to be sure. Because if Varian really was this tired of life, this careless about himself, then Hugo wasn’t sure if he had it in him to keep pursuing him. Then maybe he should distance himself from Varian. And that wouldn’t be too hard anyway. Varian would stay at Nuru’s castle to help build those towers and Hugo had never specified that he would stay or go home. He could always just leave. Take a breather and give it more time.

Well, whatever he would do, he’d have to talk with Varian first.

->\/<-

It had been interesting to talk with Uryte. Him being a mind-reading dragon and such meant that of course, he had noticed right away what was going on between Varian and Hugo. He had heard Varian’s thoughts and, once Varian was done setting up the nitric acid, had called him over to comfort him.

It was nice to have someone to talk to who could just read his mind and understand it all. Uryte was a good listener. He let Varian explain why he had taken the potion, why he wanted to save these people. He had even told the dragon about his struggle with Hugo before all this. How he loved him but was afraid that he could never satisfy him. He had tried to hide his tears by pressing his face up against the silver skin of Uryte, trying hard not to let his breath come out as sobs.

 _“Varian,”_ Uryte said, after a while. _“You are very tired. I can feel it in your mind. I think all these problems will be easier to solve once you’re not so tired. You’ll have more control over your emotions. You’ll understand them better once you’ve had proper rest. I think you should let Hugo be for now, let him think about these things as well before you two talk this out.”_

Varian sniffled quietly, trying to push back the tears. Would it really get better? Hugo seemed so incredibly mad at him. Could he ever fix all this?

 _“Of course,”_ Uryte answered. _“From what I’ve seen and heard I can say that Hugo cares a lot about you. He was willing to fight me for you, remember. Not many are that brave… or so foolishly in love.”_

Varian couldn’t help a small laugh out loud as he brushed away the remaining tears from his eyes. The image of Hugo charging into battle for him with a damn dragon for him, an alchemist in distress. It felt very fairytale-like, yet it had happened.

I guess you’re right. Varian thought, feeling steady enough to let go of the dragon. We’ll be okay.

 _“Yes, now please go rest a bit,”_ Uryte urged.

“I will, thanks Uryte,” Varian said, speaking out loud for the first time in a long while.

Varian walked over to the group sitting in the moonlight. It was getting very late and he wondered if they would be done before sunrise.

The people were all relaxing, waiting for the acid to do its job. They all didn’t really have anything to do for now and no one would deny that it was pretty late for simply lounging around. Nuru gave a particular yawn as Varian approached them and sat up to face Varian.

“How are things going?” She asked, more to be polite than actually knowing what she was asking for.

“Quite alright,” Varian answered, knowing the details would go over her head. “It’s a slow process but in a few hours’ time the steel should be brittle enough for the smith to cut through it with his instruments.”

“Sounds good,” she smiled but it faltered. “And how are things between you and Hugo?”

Varian nearly choked on air at that question. Of course, everyone had noticed Hugo being suddenly very distant from Varian and staying completely away from the group. But for a second Varian had thought Nuru was asking about their relationship. “I ehh,” he couldn’t find the right words for a moment but gathered himself quickly enough. “Well, he’s angry with me,” he started off, his hand finding his neck in an anxious gesture. “Which I understand. But he doesn’t want to talk about it, not here anyway.”

Nuru gave a sad smile. “He was very worried about you Varian. So were we. You really scared us all,” she said. “You just collapsed so suddenly. We really thought you were dead for a moment.”

“Ah yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you all like that. I didn’t know that would happen.” Varian pinched at the muscles in his neck, not meeting Nuru’s eyes.

Nuru gave a small sigh and seemed to want to say something but decided to say something else after all. “Why don’t you lay down for a bit. Get a nap in.”

“As long as someone is awake to keep an eye on the nitric acid and the fumes,” Varian said. “I figure I could close my eyes for a while.”

“No worries,” Nuru said, her voice low and soft. “We’ll keep an eye out.”

Varian smiled and looked back at the dragon, could he rest in his claw again? It would be much more comfortable than the cold, hard floor. But the others were resting on the ground so it wouldn’t be fair, would it? He found a flat place, free from the rubble of the demolished wall. He grabbed his backpack and brought it over to the spot, ready to use it as a headrest.

Varian took off his thicker than usual gloves and smock as he watched Ruddiger perking up from among the others, waking from his nap. His black beady eyes found Varian in a heartbeat and he hopped over with impressive agility. Ruddiger leaped into Varian’s arms and Varian hugged the animal closely against his chest, the heat coming from the raccoon comforting. The night air was chilly and without the smock and gloves, it felt even colder in the open room. Ruddiger brought a very welcome extra warmth and he was very thankful for that.

So Varian settled down, laying his head onto his bag and holding Ruddiger against his chest, his exposed hands digging deep into the warm fur. It didn’t take long for the both of them to nod off into a slumber.

->\/<-

The group had been relieved to see Varian resting. It wasn’t really the best place for a nap, but it was certainly better than no nap. In record time the man was off, his breath deep and slow, Ruddiger huddled in his arms. Some of the group decided to nap as well. The waiting process wasn’t a particularly fun one and they could all use the rest. Hugo had volunteered to stay up and keep watch, knowing how the nitric acid worked he was the best man to be awake anyway.

Hugo kept a close look at the acid from a little distance away, making sure he stayed out of the fumes. He watched it bubble and hiss as the moon moved slowly through the part of the sky he could see. He was left alone with his musing but he didn’t mind that too much. He liked the room to just think, to just go over the things that happened these past days.

After a while, the moon moved out of his vision and he figured it might be about time to give breaking that shackle a try. Hugo moved up to the group, most of them sleeping. He debated on waking Varian or just trying to rouse the whole group in one go. He decided to do the latter.

“Guys,” he said loudly. “I think it’s about time.”

There were some moans of complaint but most got up slowly. Varian gave a particular gasping noise as if he was startled awake from a dream and moved up with a groggy looking face. Varian rubbed his face, trying to wake himself up, but his eyelids kept hanging low. Hugo took pity and moved to Varian to hand him some water. “Here, that’ll help you wake up.”

He tried not to really make eye contact with Varian but the look of surprise that changed into a grateful smile was just pulling him in. “Thanks,” he said but the smile on his face turned into an unsure one quickly. Hugo decided that he didn’t like that he was the cause of Varian’s bright smile disappearing. They had to talk as soon as possible.

The group got up and about soon enough and Varian got back to the acid. Hugo helped him lift the big shackle from the nitric acid to have a look at the damage. The acid had successfully eaten away quite a bit from the shackles. The smith looked at the steel from a few feet away and nodded. “I think I can work with this.”

“Alright,” Varian said, looking to Hugo who wore the same gear as him; thick leather gloves, a smock, goggles, and a few layers of fabric wrapped around their mouths. “Let’s move this shackle away and I’ll handle the acid. Can you clean off the steel, Hugo?”

Hugo nodded. They both moved the shackle out and placed it on the floor. Then they both stepped away from the shackle and acid, wafting the fumes away with their hands. Even with the cloth, he could feel that the fumes started to penetrate through to his mouth. Both Hugo and Varian took a moment to breathe in deeply, knowing they could do so safely now.

Once Varian felt ready he moved back to the glass holder. The pots he had stored the acid in were still there, he had wanted them close, for when they needed to bottle it up quickly if the fumes got too bad. He started to slowly pour it back into the pots. Hugo kept busy pouring water over the shackle to rinse it of the acid. Once they were both done and the nitric acid was once again bottled up safely they asked Uryte to move so that the remaining acid on the floor was not where the smith had to work.

Varian and Hugo stepped back to give the smith room to do his work. Varian shivered a little. Ever since they blew out one wall of the place it had become rather chilly inside. The clear night wasn’t helping with the temperature either.

Varian and Hugo made eye contact for a moment, both a bit awkward in their silence. Varian wanted to say something, something to break the silence lingering between them. But all he could think of to say was sorry, or to explain why he took the potion. But he knew Hugo didn’t want to hear that right now, so he said nothing instead. He broke eye contact and moved to Uryte’s head once more.

“We’re almost done,” he said, out loud. “You’re almost free.”

 _“Yes,”_ Uryte sounded relieved. _“Thanks to you I will finally be free from this place. Thank you, Varian.”_

Varian smiled and patted the big nose. “Any idea where you’ll go when you’re free?”

 _“I’ll go see the world, discover what has changed through the millennia's,”_ Uryte answered.

“Sounds wonderful.” The circles Varian was rubbing stopped. Say. Varian started inside his head. Will I ever see you again? I’d understand you might never want to see a Moon Child ever again. Varian thought, not feeling like sharing this with everyone in the room.

 _“I would like to meet you again, Varian. We’ll forever be connected through the Moon. So we can call upon each other, or at least you can when you unlock your magic. I think I could sense if you’re in mortal danger but besides that, you’d need magic to contact me,”_ Uryte explained.

“It would be nice to meet you again,” Varian answered out loud. “I’ll try my best to unlock my magic. But please do contact me because I’m not very certain I’ll be able to.”

_“Of course.”_

The sound of metal hitting metal filled the air and Varian looked back to see the smith use a hammer on the shackle resting on a small anvil. It must have been a pain to get that up the mountain, no wonder they brought so many people back up. After a while and one final good hit the metal shackle snapped.

Varian gasped, excitement sparking in his body. It had worked, they freed Uryte. Varian looked back at the dragon, feeling gratitude flow off the being in waves. He had really truly freed him.

Hugo and the smith worked on maneuvering the shackle so that it’s one now open part faced where it was connected to the next. Uryte gave a small tug and it came free, falling to the floor. The group cheered in euphoria as the dragon fully pulled his leg away.

“You’re free!” Varian shouted in excitement and watched in awe as Uryte opened his wings in a powerful move. Varian couldn’t help a watery smile at the emotions coming from the dragon as it made a dash for the open wall and jumped out, his wings spreading to their full potential and giving a powerful beat.

The group awed at the dragon taking flight. The sound of massive wings displacing air filling the room, the sound of freedom. They all watched from the new opening of the temple how the dragon flew around, diving, rising and soaring through the night sky, his silver skin shining the same color as the moon above.

It was a wonderful sight to behold.

After a little while, the dragon returned to the temple, landing right outside of it, on the side of the mountain. He lowered his head to be face to face with Varian.

 _“Thank you, Varian. You have my never-ending gratitude,”_ his voice sounded inside of Varian’s head. _“And to the rest,”_ The group shuddered at the sound of the dragon in their heads. _“I thank you as well. You have extended your help to me and freed me as a result. Your village will forever have my gratitude.”_

Albert smiled. “You’re very welcome.”

 _“Now let me help you get back to the village. Dawn is upon us and I think you all need the rest,”_ Uryte said as he lowered his body for the group to hop on. _“But don’t expect me to give rides like this often. I prefer not to be ridden like a horse.”_

Varian smiled. “Of course,” he said. “We’ll gather our belongings, real quick.”

The group did so and gathered it all at the blown open wall. They loaded everything on the back of the dragon and three people had to hold on to the anvil when they mounted the dragon’s back as well. Varian was the last to hop on and the dragon was off.

He soared slowly through the air, much more calmly than they had seen him do with his first flight. He glided simply towards the village down in the valley and landed with a soft plop on the grass just outside the village. He laid down for the group to climb off.

The smith, mountaineers, and other helpers thanked the dragon and started to move the anvil back to the smith's workplace. As they approached the houses, lights were lit and a few windows opened to show some heads popping out with curiosity. Some people even stepped out of their houses as they saw the majestic dragon standing at the foot of the village.

Albert thanked Uryte as well and took a few steps back to give room to the rest, making sure the other villagers wouldn't bother the group who were about to say their goodbyes.

Yong touched Uryte’s nose. “Thank you,” he said. “You’re really cool.”

Something akin to a laugh escaped Uryte’s lips before his voice sounded in everyone’s head who was still close by. _“Thank you, little one.”_

“I really hope you’ll be willing to share some of your wisdom with our kingdom, Uryte,” Nuru said, also daring to touch the dragon now. “I’ve seen our history is sincerely lacking.”

 _“I am willing to do so, princess,”_ He answered. _“But I will discover the world first.”_

“Naturally,” Nuru answered with a smile. 

“Well, enjoy or something,” Hugo said, not really feeling like a sappy goodbye. He barely knew this dragon.

 _“I will,”_ Uryte said before turning towards Varian. _“Take care, Varian.”_

Varian leaned up against the dragon’s nose, eyes closed as he tried to give as much of a hug as he could. “Don’t let me wait too long, okay? I would really like to talk with you again soon.”

 _“Time is different for me than for you. I cannot promise something as vague as ‘too long’. But I can promise that I’ll be back before years have passed.”_ Uryte answered. _“Stay well, and don’t be shy to contact me.”_

“Thank you Uryte,” Varian gave one last squeeze, wondering how much Uryte actually felt that, before letting go. “Goodbye and stay safe.”

 _“Do not worry, very little can truly harm me in this world,”_ Uryte answered as he rose to his full height, wings wide and impressive, with a certain majestic stature he never had in the small room. _“Goodbye.”_

With a mighty beat of his wings, Uryte started to lift off of the ground. He flew up and disappeared from sight in no time. It left Varian feeling a bit hollow, like the space before him hadn’t been occupied by a gigantic dragon only minutes ago. Like it all had been a dream. It was as if something had ended.

It seemed like the only proof he had that a dragon had been right in front of him was the gawking and murmuring group of villagers which seemed to still be growing as they slowly poured out of their houses.

“Princess Nuru,” the group turned to face Albert standing a bit back. The other villagers not daring to go past their leader, stood behind him. “My spouse has prepared a room for you and one for your friends in our house. I would like it if you rest there for the remainder of the night and morning.”

Nuru smiled. “That would be wonderful. We’re all pretty tired I believe.”

Yong gave a loud yawn. “Yes, I certainly am.”

“Yeah, I am ready for a long sleep as well,” Varian stretched himself before following Albert to his house.

The people outside were still ogling the group but Albert was quick to send them home. “Nothing to see here anymore,” He said as he led the group into his house where Robin was waiting with open arms. “We’ll inform everyone tomorrow. Go back to bed now,” he said as he closed the door behind him and giving a sigh. “Curious as ever,” he mumbled more to himself than anyone else.

“Well, we’re all ready for a good sleep, so no dilly-dallying,” Robin said. “I’ll show you your rooms.”

Robin moved upstairs with a quick pace showing Nuru her room first. Yong, Hugo and Varian shared a room and the three of them were quick to dump their belongings in a corner and jump into their beds. Varian landed face-first into the pillow and gave a sigh of contentment. He was ready to sleep the morning and afternoon away and he figured that Yong and Hugo felt the same way.

He got up for a moment to remove some layers and found his way under the blankets. Yes, it was much softer than Uryte’s claw or the floor of the temple. He could definitely snooze away some hours on this soft mattress with ease.

“Good night,” Yong mumbled before dozing off on Varian’s right.

“Good night,” Varian answered and turned to his left side.

“Good night,” Hugo sounded the most awake of the three. He was still sitting on the bed, undoing his layers.

Varian couldn’t help but stare at Hugo’s back as he let the last layer slide off. Varian couldn’t really see many details in the dark room, neither did his tired eyes catch much. Hugo hadn’t felt so far away since their last fight. Was it even a fight the first time around? Hugo had thought Varian had rejected him and taken a step away from him. Yet right now, Hugo knew Varian’s feelings. He knew and yet there was this distance between them.

Hugo was so close to him, their beds barely six feet apart from each other. He could still remember the feeling of Hugo’s warm skin against his, especially how it felt to lay against Hugo’s back. He could feel a ghost of the feeling under his fingers, yet he couldn’t reach. Hugo wasn’t welcoming him into his arms but turned away from him.

Varian quietly watched how Hugo released his hair and shook his head. Hugo placed the piece of string holding his hair onto his nightstand, next to his glasses and noticed Varian starting when he did so. They made eye contact and Varian didn’t break it this time.

It looked like Hugo was struggling with something for a moment, the way his eyebrows furrowed but didn’t do anything. He moved his blankets up and got into his bed. As he laid down he moved his head so that he was looking Varian’s way. Varian hadn’t looked away while he had done this.

Hugo sighed. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow, okay? After we both had a good night's rest.”

“Who said I can have a good night's rest while you’re mad at me?” Varian asked, looking away for the first time.

“You’re nearly collapsing as it is, I think you’ll manage,” Varian was pretty sure it was meant as a snide, but it sounded more like a joke the way Hugo said it as there was no real malice behind his tone.

Hugo started up at the ceiling as Varian answered. “I still love you.”

Hugo’s eyes grew and he looked to the side to face Varian. “You’re not fair!”

Varian couldn’t help but beam at the reaction. It calmed the storm inside his head to see Hugo still blushed at those words. Maybe they weren’t that near the breaking point after all. But it did make his feelings mix oddly inside of him. On one hand, he just wanted to get it over with and talk things out with Hugo, on the other hand, he dreaded having the conversation with Hugo. The anger in Hugo’s eyes wasn’t too prominent right now, but it was earlier tonight. He couldn’t help but dread that anger.

“Good night, Hugo.”

Hugo turned his gaze back to the ceiling. “Good night, Varian.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something big got between our bois! :O  
> Here I was thinking I wouldn't go for the "will they, won't they"... yet here we are? But not to worry, I'm not going to rely on this trope throughout the story. (I really dislike it when it goes on too long in stories personally) but a little tension between them is necessary! And don't we all just love the angst coming from that?? >:D
> 
> Thanks again to our lovely Justine for Beta reading this fic! She's a hero! Check her stuff out it's great! I'd recommend their Falling Flying series, it's the bomb and giving me LIFE! https://archiveofourown.org/works/25198087/chapters/61070599
> 
> Don't forget to leave me a comment, I'd love to hear from you guys! You are all so lovely! <3  
> See you all in about three weeks! <3


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, Y'all! I'm here to slap that mature rating sitting on top of this fic once again! (yes I added that for a reason!)  
> I want to give you all a trigger warning!  
> There will be abusive behavior in this chapter!  
> So if that's triggering to you I'd say skip this one. If you're not sure and want some context, I'll give a summary at the end of this chapter. You can check that out and decide for yourself if you're okay with reading it or not.  
> And for those that feel abusive behavior is too much anyway, I'll give a trigger free summary waaaaaay at the end, the last part of the whole chapter and notes.  
> For now, happy reading!

When Varian awoke, he found himself alone in the room. The light was filtering in past the curtains, and he was pretty sure that the sun was quite high already. He wasn’t surprised that he’d slept in deep into the day, but he was surprised to find a plate full of food and a metal goblet sitting beside the bed.

He got up and looked into the goblet to find an oddly colored liquid inside. He picked it up and took a whiff. It didn’t smell like anything in particular but the fact it was a dark purplish color made him wrinkle his nose. Was this medicine?

Varian decided to leave it be for now and picked up the plate of food instead. There were a few slices of orange and a variety of pastries that seemed homemade. As he picked one up he could feel it had slight remnants of warmth to it, like it had been fresh when it was left by his bedside. He took a bite and found it to be filled with an assortment of fruits. It wasn’t overly sweet and the slightly flaky dough made it a real nice pick me up.

When he finished the first one he took a bite from the next, tasting banana. It was much sweeter than the last one but very satisfying to eat. He hadn’t quite finished it when the door slowly opened and he saw Hugo peeking inside. Varian hated how his heart sunk as the green eyes found him. They still had to talk after all, and he did not feel quite ready yet to do so.

Hugo smiled, though, and opened the door completely before entering. “Good morning sleepy head.”

The smile on Hugo’s face lifted Varian’s heart and he could feel the dread disappear almost completely. “Morning,” he smiled back.

Hugo sat down on his own bed, facing Varian. “Had a good rest?”

“Yes, it was really good. But I could use some more of that tonight, I think,” Varian answered watching Hugo’s eyes go over to the goblet still resting on the nightstand.

“Well, I’m not surprised one night wasn’t quite enough. After all you did, rescuing a dragon and all that,” Hugo said, making a big gesture with his hands as if to put significance on the words. “And the days before.”

“Yeah, but our traveling is almost done. I’ll have enough time to rest up all I need when we get to the capital. We’re very near,” Varian said before taking a final bite from the banana pastry.

“About that,” Hugo started, picking up the goblet. “Nuru planned the last bit of traveling for us. The villagers have been helping us with all the things that we needed to get done, and we’re mostly ready to leave this place. So she decided that we should rest a bit longer here and leave after dinner. We’ll make a two to three hour trip to the next village and we’ll have a long night there. Then we can leave for the last track to the capital the next day.”

“Oh that sounds good,” Varian said as Hugo held out the goblet for Varian. “It’s very kind of the villagers to help us out. I do need to do laundry as well, so we can really use the extra time.”

Varian took the goblet with a frown at Hugo, but Hugo simply continued. “Robin already saw to that. It’s out drying as we speak.”

“Oh, that’s nice of them,” Varian answered before changing the subject. “What is this, Hugo?”

“What? Suddenly became reluctant to take my potions?”

The snide stung. Varian had half the mind to tell Hugo off but he couldn’t help but feel like he deserved it. So instead he sighed and repeated his question. “What is it?”

Hugo’s eyebrows furrowed and Varian thought for a second that Hugo would become angry but he sighed and the anger seemed to disappear. “It’s a potion of my making. It should help you regain the energy you have lost. It’s not the energy potion that you’ve stolen, but a healthier version. It won’t work miracles but it will help your body restore. Just like all the food. They’re all created with ingredients that will help you get better.”

Varian felt bad for pushing the question. Hugo had gone out of his way to create this for him, probably had Robin make the breakfast, just to help him get his energy back. And all he did was question him. When had he started to mistrust Hugo? Why even? Hadn’t he been the one to break the trust between them by stealing? Had he expected Hugo to do something nasty back as payback? That didn’t sound like Hugo. Not when so many things had happened. Not when he was seriously mad about something. And Hugo had been _very_ mad yesterday.

“Hugo,” Varian didn’t know what to say. Should he apologize, explain? “Sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“Whatever,” Hugo cut him off.

“But I-”

“Whatever!” Hugo shot up from his place, the anger in the movement punctuating the anger in his words.

“We need to talk about this, Hugo. This thing that is between us,” Varian pressed, getting up as well.

“Just eat your food first,” Hugo said turning away, ready to leave.

“Okay,” Varian said and Hugo stopped mid-step towards the door. “Just… will you stay with me?”

Hugo looked back, the confusion in his eyes speaking for him.

“Please?” He could feel his eyes growing wetter with the moment. For once he didn’t fight it. Hugo needed to know Varian was serious about this, about him. He wanted, no, _needed_ to solve this. “I’ll eat the food and drink the potion. Just stay, okay? So we can fix this as soon as I’m done.”

Hugo was quiet for a moment, turning back around slowly. “Okay,” he answered and came back, taking his seat in front of Varian again. He folded his legs and sat, watching Varian eat and drink in silence.

Varian tried his best not to hurry or stare too much at Hugo while doing so. After he finished it he placed the plate and goblet back on the bedside table. He straightened up before starting. “Hugo, I’m _really_ sorry that I went behind your back and stole from you. I should not have done that. I’m so sorry. I’ll help you make a new one, no, even better, give me the recipe and I’ll make new ones on my own.”

Hugo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Varian could feel a surge of panic course through him at the dissatisfied look on Hugo’s face. Had that not been enough? Should he keep going?

“Varian, why did you even take it in the first place?” Hugo asked before Varian could start adding on to his apology.

Varian was taken aback by the lack of anger in his voice. “Oh,” he had not expected Hugo to ask that. “I- ehh… I didn’t think I would be able to make the climb into the mountain and back without some help. And when we were emptying out our bags I saw the potions and I just… I thought it was a good idea in that moment. Just take one, fix the problem, and tell you afterward.”

Hugo frowned. “You wanted to tell me after? Why not ask me for one? Why didn’t you ask me for help?” Anger grew again in Hugo’s voice as he continued. “Why don’t you talk with me about these things?”

“T-these things?” Varian couldn’t keep the hurt tone out of his voice. “You’re acting like I’ve done this multiple times!”

“Haven’t you?” Varian tried to read Hugo, find anything in his eyes that could help him. But all he found was emotions mixing endlessly. “Doing things that endanger yourself! Throwing your life away for strangers.”

“I thought you understood,” He had really thought he had gotten through to Hugo when he had explained it yesterday. “I can’t just let people die if I can stop it.”

“You could have died! Don’t you care about that?” Hugo got up from the bed, anger egging him on.

“I didn’t die! I didn’t plan to die!” Varia got up as well.

This seemed to make Hugo only angrier. “You took a potion I told you was dangerous! Climbed a fucking mountain to see if it was an active volcano without the proper health to do so! I don’t understand how you’re _not_ dead!”

Varian wanted to defend himself, he really did. But he knew Hugo was right. Mostly at least. “If it was to save many more,” Varian tried but his voice was soft and he couldn’t look Hugo in the eyes.

“I don’t care about strangers, Varian,” Hugo’s voice was still loud and angry. “I care about you! I want _you_ to be alive!”

“Well, you should care!” Varian spat back, anger now growing inside him as well. Why was Hugo allowed to be selfish and he wasn’t? “It’s logical! One life for many is a good trade!”

“No! Fuck that!”

Varian was sure Hugo wanted to say more but he shouted over him. “You’re so selfish!”

“At least I fucking care about myself!” Hugo threw back but seemed to regret it right after as his eyes grew at his own words.

Varian gasped at the words, the sting piercing deeply. He forced his eyes closed and felt tears rain down his cheeks. He tried to bite back his hurt and anger at those words. He had loathed himself for so long after everything he had done to the people he loved. And he knew he still did to a certain extent. He hated himself for years and tried and tried again to grow past it, to no longer see self-sacrifice as _the_ solution of doing away with his sins. He knew that what he had done yesterday had been dangerous, maybe even stupid, but it hadn’t been because he felt like he needed to sacrifice himself to set things right. It had been a genuinely selfless act to save many. But to get all those insecurities thrown back into his face, to blame everything on that was too much. It hurt too much.

“Babe, I,” Hugo’s voice sounded much softer after all the shouting.

Hugo reached out to touch Varian but Varian slapped his hand away, tears of hurt and fury pouring down. “Don’t you babe me! Not after that!”

“But I-” Hugo tried again.

“No! Fuck off! You clearly don’t understand, and you don’t care! You just want to be right! You’re too fucking selfish to understand!”

Hugo’s hand came out of nowhere to grab Varian. He hadn’t seen Hugo move through his watery vision and the grip on his left arm was so strong that he gasped in pain. He was pulled roughly forwards and Varian was disorientated by the suddenness and power behind the grip. He had completely lost what was going on for a moment until Hugo spoke.

“I want you, Varian!” Hugo sounded angry and possessive, voice low and growing.

Varian gasped as Hugo’s grip only grew tighter. He felt scared at how angry Hugo looked and how painfully the hand around his arm felt. He hated how afraid he was of Hugo in that moment. How his gut told him to fight Hugo off and flee. To do anything to get free from the grip on his arm. His mind was a jumbled mess trying to find a way out. But he was frozen in place as Hugo continued. 

“I want you and you just go off and die for some random people? I don’t fucking like that! I want you to want to live! I want you to want to share your life with me! Why don’t you care about yourself the way I do!?”

Varian tried to push Hugo back, to make some space between them, to escape the feeling of Hugo towering over him. His hand was shaking pretty bad and he was pretty sure he did not have enough power at the moment to really push hard. He took a stuttering breath. “I want to live,” he answered, not daring to look up and tears still raining down. He wanted to continue but his mind was reeling with panic. He wanted to tell him that he’d got it all wrong, that he was misunderstanding him but all he could think about was getting away. Hugo was hurting him and scaring him and he needed room to think, to breathe. “Please, Hugo… You’re hurting me.”

The hand around his arm was suddenly gone and he could feel the air shift as Hugo stepped back. Varian stepped back as well but his legs found his bed and he tumbled backward.

“Varian!” Hugo reached out, trying to help, but Varian couldn’t stop himself from flinching. For less than a second, he thought Hugo would grab him again, hurt him, force him… to do what? Hugo never forced him before.

Varian hated how he saw pain and horror flash over Hugo’s face. But then it was just as suddenly drowned out by fury, and out of gut reaction Varian flinched away again, hiding his face this time, expecting Hugo to hit him or something similar in his anger. Instead, he heard the plate and goblet hit the floor as Hugo gave a loud growl in anger.

Varian was still turned away from Hugo, hiding from the noise. When he heard Hugo pant, he gingerly turned his head and found Hugo looking very frustrated and angry, but the anger seemed to be directed inward. When their eyes met he saw regret grow in Hugo’s tightening jaw.

Varian felt his heart calm down as he realized that Hugo had directed his rageful outburst on the plate and goblet and not him. Of course Hugo had done so. He wasn’t sure why he had expected Hugo to hurt him. He wasn’t even sure why he had felt so afraid in the moment. Hugo hadn’t ever hurt him before. Not on purpose at least. But then again, he had never seen Hugo so furious before.

“Fuck, Varian, I’m so sorry,” Hugo turned away, rubbing at his face. “Here I am angry at you for not taking care of yourself and I’m the one actually hurting you.”

Varian was quiet for a moment before he found his voice. “You didn’t mean to,” he could barely hear himself and he was kind of surprised Hugo had.

“That doesn’t matter!” Hugo bit, but once again his anger was directed inwards. “I hurt you. I scared you.”

“You didn’t sc-”

“Don’t bullshit me,” he cut Varian off who closed his mouth with a clack. “I saw it in your eyes, I saw you flinch.”

Varian opened his mouth, ready to deny it but the words died out before they could even start. Hugo was right; He had been scared. He had been afraid of Hugo in that moment. “You were so angry and intense…” He started, holding himself. “You scared me, yes. But I know that’s not who you are.”

“Isn’t it?” the anger had disappeared from Hugo’s voice and was replaced by a foreign heaviness. “I did that. I hurt you,” he gestured to Varian’s arm.

“Well, I- I hurt you first, didn’t I?” Varian could feel tears well up once more. “It doesn’t make it right,” Varian said before Hugo could. “But it does point to a cause.”

Hugo stepped closer, reaching out. When he saw Varian didn’t flinch away or make any other kind of movement away from him, he leaned in further, cupping Varian’s cheek.

“I’m really sorry,” Hugo said, green eyes soft as Varian nuzzled into the touch, eyes closed.

“I know,” Varian said before looking up, his blue eyes meeting green. “I am too.”

Hugo ducked down to give Varian a kiss on the forehead, his lips meeting skin short and lightly. Hugo pulled away but Varian moved up to meet his lips Their lips melted together and Varian’s arms moved around Hugo to hold unto him. As they parted Varian gave a small sigh of contentment.

“I thought you didn’t want to give me your energy potion because I could get addicted to it. I really didn’t think it would have been that dangerous. I’ve seen you use it so many times, and nothing ever happened to you…” Varian looked away, cheeks dusting pink. “I thought you were just being a hypocrite.”

Hugo gave a short airy chuckle before he let go of Varian’s cheek and sat down beside him on the bed. “Maybe I was a little,” He said, looking at his own hands resting in his lap. “I knew it had pretty bad side effects and that you should be in bed before it stopped working. But I know now that it would have been better to just tell you that, instead of denying you the potion.”

Hugo gave another laugh, rubbing his face before pushing the blonde strands of hair back. “Here I am expecting you to trust me when I don’t even trust you with information about my own potion.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Varian answered, his hand finding one of Hugo’s.

“Well, I was hard on you, shouldn’t I hold myself to the same standards?”

Varian shook his head. “We’re both learning. We’re both- no, _I_ am new to… well… _this_. I don’t know about you, but when I try out new chemical combinations it’s bound to go wrong now and then. All this is new, so it isn’t strange things may go wrong so now and then. The important part is that we stay together and talk about it, grow from it. Listen to each other and learn.”

Hugo looked at Varian like he just invented the wheel for the first time before he let out a laugh. “I fucking knew it! You’re not bad at love!” Hugo quickly got up and took a seat on Varian’s lap, both legs on either side of Varian. “You’re so hot when you outsmart me!”

Varian had initially rolled his eyes at Hugo’s first comment but had fallen quiet when Hugo climbed onto his lap. He flushed when Hugo was towering over him but in all the right ways this time.

Their lips met once more and Hugo used his height advantages to throw some weight into the kiss. Hugo’s hands laid in Varian’s lower back, holding him firmly as he pushed in even deeper. Varian let a moan escape as he held onto Hugo tightly. It was a bit overwhelming after everything that happened, but at the same time, he wanted more. He let Hugo lead though, following his suit. Hugo’s arms slowly traveled up, his hands dragging up the light shirt Varian was wearing. Varian tightened his grip a bit as Hugo’s firm hold was loosening and the power behind the kiss was pushing him back. Varian was about to reposition himself under Hugo when an arm brushed against his left arm. He gasped into the kiss, pulling back at the pain in his arm.

All the warmth that had developed in him a moment ago was gone in a second. Hugo had gotten off his lap in a snap and was hovering around Varian with worry on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“My arm,” Varian said, his right hand carefully touching his left arm.

Hugo paled for a moment before something steady settled in his face. “Here, let me help you take that shirt off. I’ll have a look.”

Varian let Hugo pull the shirt up as he carefully kept his arms up. The wide shirt was lifted off his body with ease but showed a painful looking arm. The skin was slowly turning red and blue in a clear hand-shaped mark.

“Shit, Var,” Hugo sounded breathless, his eyes not leaving the bruise. “I- I’m so sorry. Fuck! I…”

Varian took Hugo’s face in both his hands and gently lifted his face up to connect their eyes. “It’s okay, babe. I’m okay. It hurts now, but it will heal. I’ve had worse.”

Hugo laid his hands on top of Varian’s, closing his eyes. “I am really sorry, Varian.”

“I know,” Varian answered. “I know.”

They were quiet for a moment, Hugo leaning into the soft touch that was Varian. Varian simply closed his eyes as well, happy to feel Hugo so near, knowing the air had been cleared. They had worked through it, a bit roughly, but they did do it. There were still some things left to be done, but for now, they could love again, be together again.

“I still love you too, Varian,” Hugo said after a long silence.

At this Varian shot up from his place on his bed and placed his lips roughly onto Hugo’s. For the first time, he not only initiated but led. And Hugo happily followed along. Varian’s lips roamed over Hugo’s and he let the hands cupping Hugo’s face slip down, feeling Hugo’s warmth under his fingertips.

The thought that they had worked through this, that Hugo still loved him, it gave him hope. Hope that they could work through more. Hope that Hugo would listen to him, hear him out if he shared his secret. It may be bumpy too, but they had seen through this. They held out and did not break under the pressure. They had grown instead. Grown closer and learned more about each other. It was all so very promising.

A knock on the door caused the two to break off the kiss and Hugo stepped back. Varian quickly sank back unto the bed to create an even greater distance between them.

“Uh, yes?” Hugo said, still sounding just a bit winded.

The door opened and showed Robin, holding a laundry basket perfectly balanced between their hip and arm like it cost no effort. “Oh, I see you’re awake Varian,” they said, entering the room and placing the weaved basked down. “I’ve taken the liberty to fold you-” they cut themselves off as their eyes landed on Varian’s arm, eyes growing with horror. “What happened to your arm?”

“Oh,” Varian’s hands shot up in a defensive gesture as he spoke. “No that’s nothing. It was just an accident.”

Robin frowned in disbelief. “That doesn’t look like nothing,” they said, hands landing on their hips. “It looks new and ready to swell. I’ll get some water to cool it down,” they said and turned to Hugo. “Come and help me,” the finality in their voice made Hugo aware that it was not up for debate.

Hugo didn’t feel like arguing with Robin so he simply nodded and followed them. Varian was left behind, feeling stunned and confused. That reaction had been rather peculiar.

Hugo quietly followed Robin down the stairs. Robin walked with a steady speed, barging into the kitchen and grabbed a bucket.

The feeling of guilt only rose the longer Robin stayed silent and stormed out of the kitchen to the back. He wasn’t sure if Robin was angry or just extremely hurried but the way they had looked at Varian made him guess the latter.

Robin led the two of them to an old looking water pump a bit out of the back of the house. Robin suddenly turned around and pressed the bucket into Hugo’s hands. “Hold this under the pump. I’ll do the hard work.”

“Why won’t you let me-”

Robin cut him off. “Don’t talk back to me, boy,” they said as they started pumping the handle up and down. “I don’t know what is going on between the two of you, but I can recognize a handprint on someone in a heartbeat.”

Hugo could see the pump was heavy by the way Robin had to use their entire body weight to move it. Yet they seemed rather unfazed by the amount of energy that they needed to exert. They were clearly used to it.

“It’s not what you think,” Hugo tried but the glare Robin was shooting him made him rethink his angle. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

“Well you did,” Robin said, breath becoming a bit more labored as they kept pumping. Water started to gush out on the other side, the stream wild and splashing around, and Hugo was quick to hold the bucket up high

“As Varian said, it was an accident,” Hugo said again, once he was sure he was catching the water. “I hadn’t realized I was hurting him. I would never do that on purpose.”

Robin stopped once the bucket was mostly filled and gave a sweep over their forehead, wiping away the sweat on their brow. “Well, intentions don’t matter as much as actual actions,” Robin said, sounding less intense than before. “You’ll have to learn to control yourself, whatever your relationship is.”

Hugo stared at Robin for a moment before he sighed. “Yeah,” he said, eyes dipping down to the bucket in his hand, the cold, fresh water reflecting his face. “It scared me that I was able to hurt him, without noticing it.” Hugo closed his eyes, trying to fight back the dark feeling rising up inside of him. “I feel disgusting. I feel like a monster.”

This time Robin was quiet for a moment, eyes taking in Hugo. “Well,” they started, walking back to the house. “Seeing how much it scared you, how it didn’t evoke a feeling of power, but disgust inside of you,” They started, looking back over their shoulder. “Seems like a good sign to me.”

Hugo looked up from the bucket, eyes meeting Robin’s. “Y-you think?”

Robin gave a smile. “I do hope so. It seems like Varian really loves you, and I’d hate to see him get hurt for it.”

Hugo could feel a painful pang inside of his chest. The idea of Varian staying by his side even if he would be abusive to him, it made him feel sick. He wouldn’t allow Varian to stay with him if that was the case. Varian had been right, hurting him wasn’t like Hugo. It wasn’t something that made him feel good or powerful. He wanted Varian to be happy and to be happy together with him.

“Hurry, the water will only warm if you dilly-dally. And we have to hurry if we want to stop the swelling at least a bit,” Robin said.

“Ah! Yes of course,” Hugo moved hurriedly towards Robin who regained their quick steps and walked back to the house.

Robin grabbed a cloth and the two of them got back to Varian quickly. Varian simply smiled at the both of them as they entered, and Robin was quick to take a seat next to Varian, on his left. Hugo placed the bucket down before them and Robin dipped the cloth in.

“It’s not as cold as I would have liked it to be, but it is all we have this late in the afternoon,” they said as they wrung the cloth only a little. They used the cool cloth to drip water on Varian’s arm, who let out a hiss at the sudden press.

Hugo hated how Varian was obviously trying to hold back his flinch. He hated that he had been the cause of it. But all that couldn’t do him any good now.

“Can I help,” Hugo asked.

“You could grab a few towels from the bathroom,” Robin said. Hugo wondered for a moment what Robin could possibly want to do with a bunch of towels. But he realized why when he noticed how Robin let the water drip down Varian’s arm, not giving the skin too much time to warm it up. Moving water was much more efficient at cooling a surface. But that would mean that both Varian and the bed would be soaking wet in no time. And with the water being pretty cold groundwater he figured Varian would get cold himself real quick.

“Yes of course,” he said and quickly left to grab some. He returned with an arm full and started placing them under Varian’s right arm. Then he wrapped one particularly big one around Varian’s waist to keep him warm.

“Thanks,” Varian gave a shy smile to Hugo, one he had seen before but still left him breathless. Which deity did he please to have Varian still be in love with him!? And how the hell was ever going to deal with Varian being so cute!?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was the chapter! A pretty dramatic one! I was very hyped to get this out to you guys! I hope you all enjoyed it <3 I just wanted to say that both Varian and Hugo are making mistakes throughout this story, neither is perfect. And I don't want them to be perfect. I'll be going into it a bit more throughout their story but for now, I just wanted to let you guys know ^^  
> Thanks to Justine for beta reading again! She's such a great help! Especially with some cultural uses of words! I am not a native speaker, sadly. So she's a great help!  
> Please let me know your thoughts on this chapter down below and until next time, bye! <3 
> 
> Summary: Varian and Hugo have a talk about what happened with the stolen potion and such. Hugo goes in pretty mad about Varian's lack of self-preservation and an argument starts. Hugo says some hurtful things to Varian causing Varian to become angry. Their argument escalates to the point that Hugo grabs Varian by his arm and shouts over him, triggering a panic reaction from Varian. Hugo hadn't noticed that he was hurting Varian and let's go the moment Varian communicates this to him. Varian explains himself better this time around and they make up. Hugo checks on the bruise, finding it looking really bad. Robins comes in and sees this, they get Hugo out of there under the excuse of getting cold water to cool the bruise and prevent swelling. Here Hugo explains a bit more about how horrible he felt for hurting Varian and Robin tells him that he has to keep his anger under control.  
> that's the gist of it. It's hard to explain the nuances of their arguments and I think that if you can handle a narration of this kind of physical abuse that it would be great if you read the chapter.  
> If you're unsure, feel free to DM me or ask in a comment, I'm happy to give more information.   
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Okay, I hope this is enough space!  
> So trigger free summary: Varian and Hugo have a talk about what happened with the stolen potion and such. Hugo goes in pretty mad about Varian's lack of self-preservation and an argument starts. Hugo says some hurtful things to Varian causing Varian to become angry. The argument escalates but they do manage to calm back down and talk things over. They share some kisses and Varian is hopeful about explaining his asexuality.   
> If you have any questions about this chapter, want to know more, or just want to talk about it without the triggers, feel free to DM me (here or on discord) or ask in the comments. I'm more than willing to help you enjoy this chapter without causing any traumatic responses! Otherwise until next time! <3


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